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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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^ POULTRV ^ 




A CONCISE AND PRACTICAL 

Treatise 

ON THE 

Management of Farm Poultry 

BY 

JACOB BIGGLE 

ILLUSTRATED 



What this country needs is less hog and hominy and mori 
chicken and celery." 



Philadelphia 

Wilmer Atkinson Co. 

1909 



«i 



Copyright, 1895, 1909. 
Wilmer Atkinson Co. 



Seventh Edition, 
seventieth thousand. 



■-•-.-• d Prom 

t Office 
IUh 16 191U 



CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

List of Colored Plates 6 

Chapter I. Introduction 7 

Parts of the Chicken 10 

Heads and Combs i<? 

Chapter II. The Egg 13 

Chapter III. Eggs for Hatching 21 

Chapter IV. Hatching the Eggs 27 

Chapter V. Chicks with Hens 35 

Chapter VI. Chicks with Brooders 43 

Chapter VII. Early Broilers 49 

Chapter VIII. Hens Expressly for Eggs 57 

Chapter IX. The Farmer's Flock 67 

Chapter X. The Village Hennery 75 

Chapter XI. Breeds of Chickens 81 

Chapter XII. Turkeys and Guinea-Fowls 95 

Chapter XIII. Ducks 107 

Chapter XIV. Geese 119 

Chapter XV. Pigeons ■ 127 

Chapter XVI. Fattening and Marketing 137 

Chapter XVII. Diseases and Enemies . 147 




LIST OF COLORED PLATES. 



PIRATE I. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

PLATE) II. Silver Laced Wyandottes. 

PLATE) HI. LIGHT Brahmas. 

PLATE) IV. Dark Brahmas. 

PLATE) V. Buff Cochins. 

PLATE) VI. Partridge Cochins. 

PLATE) VII. Langshans. 

PLATE) VIII. Single Comb Brown Leghorns. 

PLATE) IX. Silver Polish and Golden Penciled Ham- 

BURGS. 

PLATE) X. Houdans. 

PLATE) XL Silver Gray Dorkings. 

PLATE) XII. Indian Games. 

PLATE) XIII. Representative Breeds of Bantams 

PLATE) XIV. Bronze Turkeys. 

PLATE) XV. Rouen and Muscovy Ducks 

PLATE) XVI. Totjlouse and Brown China Geese. 



Chapter I. 



PRELIMINARY PARLEY. 




This little book is intended 
to help farmers and villagers 
conduct the poultry business 
with pleasure and profit. Its 
teachings are not drawn from 
the author's inner conscious- 
ness exclusively, but from, 
practical experience, study 
and observation. 
I have been successful in the business myself, not 
as a fancier, but as a farmer, a fact which I do not 
attribute to my own ability entirely, but partly to the 
help derived from the stimulating and restraining 
influence of my good wife Harriet, and to Martha, 
the industrious and vigilant spouse of our faithful Tim. 
A good deal of what I know and have written has 
really been derived from a diligent perusal of the 
Farm Journal^ and I confess to having borrowed con- 
siderably from its pages both in text and illustration. 
Credit must therefore be given in a comprehensive 
way to the Poultry Editor of that publication, whose 
discerning mind and great experience with poultry 



8 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

have received the widest recognition by all interested 
in the poultry industry. I could do nothing better 
than to draw largely upon him, augmenting his prac- 
tical information with trimmings from my own obser- 
vation and experience, and with suggestions from the 
women folks and from Tim. 

Great pains have been taken with the illustrations, 
and those having charge of this feature of the book 
deserve much praise for the skill, taste and originality 
displayed. They certainly have done well. The beau- 
tiful and life-like pictures set off the book in fine 
style and raise it far above the level of the common- 
place. 

The paintings for the colored prints were made 
from life from birds in the yards of breeders or on 
exhibition at the poultry shows, by I,ouis P. Graham, 
a young Philadelphia artist possessing a high order of 
talent. They are as true to nature and the ideal 
bird as it is possible to make them. 

Few people have an adequate idea of the impor- 
tance of the poultry business in this country. It is 
estimated that there are in the United States over 
three hundred millions of chickens and thirty millions 
of other domestic fowls. There are produced in one 
year nearly one billion dozen eggs of an average 
worth of ten cents per dozen, making the annual 
value of the total egg product one hundred million 
dollars. If in addition to this the yearly product of 
poultry meat is considered, the importance of this 
branch of rural economy will be more fully appre- 
ciated. 

A pound of eggs or a pound of poultry can be 



PRELIMINARY PARITY. 9^ 

raised as cheaply as a pound of beef or mutton. 
Poultry sells at home for nearly twice the price per 
pound you get for beef and mutton on the hoof. 
Eggs sell for more than twice the price per pound on 
the farm that the city butcher gets for the dressed 
carcasses of the animals he sells. 

I have not written this book for the poultry fan- 
cier, although that valued person will find many 
points of interest in it, but for the practical farm or 
village man or woman who raises poultry and eggs for 
market, whose flock is one of the many sources by 
which the income of the farm or village acre is in- 
creased with but a trifling money outlay, and with but 
little extra care and work. As in every other branch 
of farm production, however, poultry always responds 
quickly to any extra effort and thought put into it, and 
there are hundreds of farms to-day where the poultry 
yard yields more ready cash than any other department. 

This book is small in measure ; I could have 
doubled the size easily, but it would have been thinner 
and not any better, at least so it seems to me, and 
Harriet agrees. Should this be your verdict, gentle 
reader, I shall be content. 



Jacob Biggle. 



Elm wood. 



PARTS OF THE CHICKEN. 



i. Comb. 

2. Face. 

3. Wattles. 

4. Ear-lobes. 

5. Hackle. 

6. Breast. 

7. Back. 

8. Saddle. 

9. Saddle-feathers. 

10. Sickles. 

11. Tail-coverts. 

12. Main tail-feathers. 

13. Wing-bow. 

14. Wing-coverts, 

forming wing-bar. 

15. Secondaries, wing-bay. 

16. Primaries or flight-feathers ; wing-butts. 

17. Point of breast bone. 20. Shanks or legs. 

18. Thighs. 21. Spur. 

iq. Hocks. 22. Toes or claws. 




TYPES OF HEADS AND COMBS. 




h 




ff 




M 



1. Single comb. 

2. Spiked comb. 



3. Rose comb. 

4. Pea comb. 
Single comb, female. 



5. Cup comb. 

6. l^eaf comix 



Chapter II. 



THE) EGG. 



Don't put all your eggs in one basket. — Old Proverb. 

Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket. 

— Mark Twain's Version. 



Careful and critical examination of an egg reveals 
an arrangement of its contents in a series of layers as 
seen in the illustration. 

Referring to the cut, A is the shell ; B is the 
membrane adhering to the shell ; C is a second mem- 
brane slightly adhering to B, except at the large end, 
where the two separate and 
form D, the air space ; K is 
the first layer of the white 
or albuminous part and is 
in liquid form ; F is the 
second layer, which is semi- 
liquid, and G is the inner 
layer ; H, H are the chal- 
azse, or slightly thickened 
membranes that unite the white to the membrane 
enclosing the yolk, M. They form a ligament 
that binds the parts together, and holds the yolk 
suspended in the midst of the white or albumen. 
I, J, K are very fine membranes surrounding the yolk ; 
Iv is the germ, and N is the germ sack or utricle ; a, 
b, c are separate layers composing the yolk. The 
germ, I/, and germ sack, N, are suspended by the mem- 




14 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

branes H, like a mariner's compass, so that the germ 
always retains its position on top of the yolk. While 
this germ is present in all eggs alike, it requires the 
contact of the male element to give it vitality. This 
contact takes place in the oviduct before the yolk is 
surrounded by the white, or albumen, and the shell. 

The yolk is the essential part of the egg, contain- 
ing as it does the germ, and albuminous and fatty 
matter and organic salts sufficient to support the germ 
in its earlier stages of development. The white, 
which is pure albumen and water, furnishes in the first 
place a safe and congenial medium for the preserva- 
tion of the life germ and afterwards contributes its 
share of nutriment to the developing embryo. 

The shell is a layer of carbonate of lime deposited 
so as to give the greatest possible strength, and so ar- 
ranged as to leave numerous pores through which the 
water of the egg can escape and the external air can 
enter. 

About three-fourths, 74 per cent., of the contents 
of an egg consist of water, 14 per cent, is albumen, 
10.5 per cent, is fat, and 1.5 per cent, is ash. Of the 
latter the principal part consists of phosphate of lime, 
the element that enters so largely into the composi- 
tion of bones. 

These constituents of an egg furnish every ele- 
ment, except oxygen, essential to the formation of 
the living bird. 

The egg is the beginning of all animal life. In 
the case of mammals, this egg is hatched and the 
young animal is nourished and developed for a certain 
period within the body of the mother before it is cast 



THE EGG. 15 

upon the cold charities of the world. The egg of a 
bird, or a reptile, is expelled as soon as it is perfectly 
formed, and the germ of life within it is awakened or 
destroyed by surrounding conditions. 

The application of heat, 100 degrees to 103 
degrees Fahrenheit, to the egg of the domestic fowl 
will cause the germ within to begin a process of trans- 
formation. Within twenty-four hours after incubation 
begins, an examination will show a zone of small 
blood vessels formed around this germ. After three 
days a temporary membrane begins to form inside of 
the shell membranes. This new membrane serves as 
lungs to the growing embryo ; into its numerous hair- 
like vessels the contents of the egg are absorbed and 
changed into blood. This blood is exposed to the 
oxygen of the air that enters through the pores of the 
shell, and thus, purified and vitalized, returns to the 
centre of life, circulation is established and develop- 
ment proceeds rapidly until the entire egg is absorbed 
and transformed into a creature having various organs 
and a conscious life. 

The different stages in the process of development 
above described, may be observed by breaking eggs 
that have been exposed for different periods to the 
proper conditions for incubation. 

The contents should be turned out into a saucer, 
great care being taken not to rupture the delicate 
membranes that are forming. A good hand reading 
glass will greatly aid in making this examination. 

As breaking the egg destroys the embryo, this 
method of examination is useful only to train the eye 
and judgment of the observer to examine the embryo 



1 6 BIGGIvE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

through the shell. This may be done by holding the 
egg between the eye and a strong light. Various con- 
trivances are used to assist the eye. One of the most 
simple, is made like a tin horn having a piece of soft 
leather or rubber over the large end and a hole in it, 
oval in shape, and a little smaller than the eggs to be 
tested. Such a tester may be made of tin or card 
board. 

To test an egg, grasp it between the thumb and 
finger of the left hand and holding it large end up 
against the aperture of the tester look directly through 
it toward the light. While doing so revolve it slowly 
to get a view from all sides and to observe the motion 
of the embryo. 

Figure i illustrates a tester that any handy person 
can make. The box is six inches square 
by eighteen inches high, open at top with 
a sliding door on one side. This holds a 
lamp. Opposite the lamp flame is a hole 
one and a half inches in diameter and 
around this a washer cnt from a rubber 
boot. Back of the lamp place a piece of 
looking glass, and paint the rest of the 
box inside a dull black. /^y> 
Have holes at bottom of box to ven- jf: : \ 

tilate lamp. / \ 

A fresh egg looks like Figure 2, 
almost perfectly clear. With a strong I / 

light and a thin white-shelled egg the 
outline of the yolk can be seen. Eggs 
with thick brown shells are difficult 
to test. 




THE EGG. 



17 




Fig. 3. 



On the fifth or sixth day of incu- 
bation, a strong, fertile egg will look 
like Figure 3. The air-sack is slightly 
enlarged and from a dark center fine 
red lines are seen to radiate. There 
is also a slight cloudiness about this 
dark spot or germ, and the germ can 
be seen to move slightly as the egg 
is revolved. 

It often happens that the germ begins to develop 
and dies before the sixth day. In this case the red 
lines are indistinct, or absent, and in 
their place is a dark circle enclosing 
the germ as appears in Figure 4. When 
the egg is revolved this dead embryo 
floats aimlessly about in the surround- 
ing contents. 

All infertile eggs that were fresh 
when incubation began, will remain 
clear up to the sixth day, or even lon- 
ger, but a stale egg shows a cloudy spot in the center 
and a large air sack. When opened, the yolk sack is 
apt to break and the contents to run together, or, as 
we say, become "addled." 

All such eggs, as well as those that contain dead 
embryos, and all clear or infertile 
eggs should be removed at this first 
testing. 

A second testing of eggs should 
be made on the tenth day. By this 
time the air sack has still further en- 
larged and the growth of the embryo 

Fig. 5. 




Fig. 4. 




18 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

has so clouded the egg contents as to render the out- 
lines indistinct. The appearance of the egg is now 
shown by Figure 5. 

After the tenth day the tester is of little use. 
On the eighteenth day the embryo is nearing the final 
stages, the yolk upon which it subsists is nearly all 
absorbed. On the nineteenth and twentieth days it is 
chipping the shell, and on the twenty-first it emerges, 
fully developed, into a new and larger world. 

FOOT NOTES. 

The shell of an egg is porous and any filth on it will taint 
the meat. This is a good reason for cleaning eggs as soon as 
gathered. All stains and dirt should be wiped with a moist cloth ) 
and then allowed to dry. A little vinegar will often remove the 
most obstinate stain. 

Sometimes dirty looking eggs are fresher than some that 
are clean, but buyers will not believe it, and, as they must judge 
an egg by its outward appearance only, eggs should be made as 
attractive looking as possible before being sent to market. 

Eggs are preserved in two ways : By cold storage in a dry 
atmosphere, at a temperature of 36 to 40 degrees, and by im- 
mersing in a pickle of lime and salt in clean oak barrels. The 
pickle is made by slaking two pounds of lime in hot water, and 
adding one pint of salt and four gallons of water. Twenty gal- 
lons will cover 150 dozens. Put fresh eggs in the clear pickle 
until the vessel is nearly full, spread a clean cloth over them 
and cover this with the settlings of the lime. 

Ice-house eggs and pickled eggs are edible if put in fresh 
and properly kept, but are greatly inferior to fresh stock. If 
sold for what they are it is all right, but it is all wrong and a 
fraud on consumers to palm them off as newly-laid eggs. 




Chapter III. 
EGGS FOR HATCHING. 

To me eggs are like morals — they have no middle ground. If 
not good, they are bad. — Harriet. 

O. W. Holmes is credited with the 
observation that a child's education should 
begin one hundred years before it is born. 
In this witticism the poet and sage ex- 
presses his appreciation of the law of 
heredity, that like begets like, a principle 
as applicable to the raising of fowls as to the training 
of children. 

The successful chicken rearer must begin his 
operations long before the advent of the chickens. 
Hens that have been stunted by neglect and abuse or 
debilitated by too frequent intermingling of blood, 
will not lay eggs containing strong, healthy germs. 
The breeding birds of both sexes should be of hardy 
stock, fully matured and in a high state of health. 

Young pullets forced into early laying by stimu- 
lating food do not make good breeders. Hens that 
are over two years old, hens that are over fat, or have 
been weakened by disease, should never be used to 
furnish eggs for hatching. Pullets that have reached 
their full size, and well preserved two-year-old hens 
mated with a vigorous male, make the best breeders. 
A good plan is to mate hens with a cockerel from eight 



22 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

to twelve months old, and to mate pullets with an active 
cock not over two years old. The exact age when a 
bird reaches maturity cannot be given, as the different 
breeds vary greatly in this respect. 

In order to obtain eggs with germs of strong 
vitality, the diet of the breeders must receive attention. 
Eggs are produced from what we may call surplus 
food, that which is not required for the sustenance of 
the hen herself. As we have already seen, the egg 
contains substances that make fat, lean meat or muscle 
and bones. To reproduce these in eggs the hen must 
eat and digest substances out of which these are made. 
Starchy foods contain the necessary oil or fatty matter. 
These are represented by the grains, especially corn, 
wheat, buckwheat and barley, and vegetables, espe- 
cially potatoes and sugar beets. The mineral element 
that is found in eggs is found also in nearly all foods. 
Of the grains, oats have the largest percentage, then 
follow barley, sweet corn, buckwheat and rye, wheat 
and corn in the order named. Wheat, bran, clover 
hay, linseed and cottonseed meal and buttermilk are 
all rich in this element. Of the twenty-six per cent. 
of solids in an egg, fourteen consist of albumen, from 
which may be seen the absolute necessity of supplying 
the laying hen with food containing a large proportion 
of albuminous matter. The alchemy of nature work- 
ing in the body of the hen cannot elaborate albumen 
out of starch or fat, nor out of carbonate and phosphate 
of lime. Food abounding in these will not enable the 
hen to produce eggs, if it be deficient in what are 
called albuminoids or nitrogenous elements. While 
the grains contain these they are not contained in 



EGGS FOR HATCHING. 2$ 

sufficient quantity to form a proper diet for egg pro- 
duction when the grains are fed alone. Resort is had, 
therefore, to foods rich in albuminoids. Meat-meal, 
made from lean meat dried and ground, is the richest 
in this respect of all the foods found in the market. 
After meat-meal, follow in order green cut bone, 
cottonseed meal, linseed meal, wheat bran, clover 
hay and milk. 

The hens when running at large in the warm 
season of the year supplement the ration of grain 
supplied them by their keeper with worms, grubs and 
insects of various kinds, which contain the needful 

fir 




HE FINDS A WORM. 

albumen. While providing themselves with this they 
obtain succulent and bulky green food in the form of 
grass, and gritty particles to grind the whole mass. 

Along with the needful quantity and variety of 
food, hens roaming the fields secure the exercise so 
essential to good health and the production of healthy 
progeny. 

Eggs of strong vitality for hatching may be ob- 
tained even from hens in confinement when the con- 
ditions noted here are complied with. 

The same conditions that promote health and in- 
duce the hens to lay are favorable for giving vigor to 
the cock also. 



24 BIGGLK POULTRY BOOK. 

It is difficult to lay down definite rules in regard 
to the number of hens to be allowed for each male 
bird. Breeds and individuals of each breed differ in 
activity and vigor ; but speaking generally, it may be 
said that for a flock at liberty, one Leghorn male may 
be allowed for each flock of twenty to twenty-five 
females ; one Plymouth Rock male to fifteen to 
twenty females; and one Brahma male to ten to fifteen 
females ; these breeds being taken to represent the 
small, medium and large fowls. When confined in 
yards, reduce the number of females by a third, unless 
two males are allowed each pen, alternated weekly. 
Never have more than one male with the flock at the 
same time. 

To be sure that eggs for hatching are fertile, none 
should be saved for this purpose from a flock until 
the third day after mating. 

After mating, though the male be removed, the 
eggs laid from the third to the tenth day will nearly 
all be fertile. It follows from this, that in breeding 
pure-bred fowls, contamination of the blood from the 
introduction of a strange male need not be feared 
after the tenth day. 

Never shake an egg designed for hatching. 

Wrap eggs kept for hatching in old flannel or 
woolen cloth, or stand on end in bran and cover with 
flannel. Avoid a hot, drying atmosphere. 

Beware of breeding from cocks with crooked 
breasts, wry tails, long, slender shanks, or any other 
bodily defect indicating a lack of vigor. L,ike begets 
like. Use only the best for stock birds. 



Chapter IV. 
HATCHING THE EGGS. 

Eggs are close things, but the chicks come out at last. 

—Chinese Proverb 

Incubation is the application of the proper amount 
of heat to the egg under proper conditions. Nature 
has provided for this by bringing upon hens after lay- 
ing a certain number of eggs, the brooding fever, 
which runs its course when its purpose has been 
fulfilled. 

In some breeds this broody instinct has been bred 
out to a great extent. This is true of the smaller, or 
Spanish breeds generally, yet even these will occa- 
sionally become broody. Nearly all the medium sized 
breeds, and the larger ones, too, are persistent sitters. 
Of all the standard breeds, perhaps the Cochins are by 
nature the most quiet and gentle, and have the moth- 
erly instinct the most strongly developed. 

Whatever may be the breed, it is best, as a 
rule, to select for sitters and mothers, medium sized 
hens, and such as are not too fat and clumsy. It is an 
advantage, also, to have those that are gentle and will 
not fidget and fight and break their eggs. Wild, 
squalling hens are a nuisance ; accustom them to 
being handled, remove them at night to a room apart 
from the laying hens, let them sit for a day or two on 
nest eggs, and if they promise well, give them as 
many as they can cover well. 



28 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

No invariable rule can be laid down respecting 
the number of eggs to be put under a hen. The size 
of the hen, the size of the eggs and the season of the 
year will determine the pioper number, which may- 
be from nine to eighteen. 

The manner of making the nest, a very simple 
operation, apparently, has much to do with the suc- 
cess or failure of a hatch. The box in which the nest 
is made should be so large as not to prevent the hen 
from turning about freely, and so situated that she 
cannot be interfered with by other hens. One of the 
cheapest and most satisfactory nest 
boxes for general purposes is illus- 
trated herewith. It is a large soap box 
with two-thirds of the top removed, 



ff|j||[||M r ' 
■ 



turned on its side. A box of this kind Fig- i. 

set on the floor of the laying room or on a shelf with 
the open side toward the wall but a few feet from it, 
makes a handy and secluded nesting place. When 
a hen becomes broody, the box can be moved near 
the wall and other hens shut out, and at the proper 
time she can be carried on her own nest to the hatch- 
ing-room. 

If a new nest must be made it should be of some 
soft material, broken oat straw or hay, carefully spread 
out and pressed down, hollowed but slightly, and the 
edges raised a little to prevent the eggs from rolling 
out. If the bottom be made too flat the eggs roll 
away from the hen and she cannot cover them ; if too 
convex, they roll close together, and when the hen 
enters the nest and steps on them or among them 
they do not separate or roll away and a fouled nest is 



HATCHING THE EGGS. 



29 



the result. Whenever eggs are thus smeared or 
fouled in any manner, they should be carefully washed 
in warm water and at once replaced under the hen. 

In selecting eggs for hatching, such as are very 
large or very small, all having unusually thin, rough 
or chalky shells, should be discarded. 

It is a good plan to mark on every egg with pen 
and ink the date of sitting, and when they are due to 
hatch, and- to make a record of the same in a book 
kept for the purpose. Always put the eggs under the 
hen after dark, unless she is known to be perfectly 
gentle and trustworthy. 

To save labor it is a common custom to set several 
hens at one time, and when the chicks hatch to put 
two or more broods with one mother. 

About the best food for sitting hens is corn. With 
corn, water, gravel, charcoal and a place to dust 
supplied, they will need little else. Their attendant 
should see that they come off the nest once a day and 
that their eggs are not fouled or broken. 

The modern man-made hatcher, the incubator, is 
largely used for winter hatching when hens rarely be- 
come broody, and also for hatch- 
ing on a larger scale than is con- 
venient with the natural mother. 

While the names and makers 
of these machines are numerous 
they are divided into two general 
classes, those warmed by hot air, 

' ■> ' TYPE OF 

and those warmed by radiation hot-air incubator. 
from a tank of hot water, the heat being supplied 
m both cases by a lamp flame or a gas jet. A very 




3° 



BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 




few are still made that are heated by drawing off the 
cooled water from a tank and pouring in hot water as 
required. 

Bach kind and each make has its friends, and nearly 
all are fairly successful. An expert having knowl- 
edge and experience in artificial hatching can make 
a success of the crudest incuba- 
tor, while a person ignorant in 
such matters may fail with the 
most improved. 

The running of an incubator 
with only a few eggs in it at first, 
hot- water incubator. t o learn how to manage it and to 
gain experience, is the part of wisdom for a novice. 
The directions sent by all manufacturers with their 
machines should be carefully studied during these 
experimental hatches. 

The best location for an incubator is in a room 
where a mild and fairly uniform temperature can be 
preserved in spite of changes in the weather. Such 
a location is afforded by a light, dry and well ventil- 
ated basement or cellar. The machine should stand 
on a firm foundation, and where 
the direct rays of the sun can- 
not shine upon it. 

Before filling the trays with 
eggs run it empty for a day or TYpE OF 

two to see that it is in working home-made incubator. 
order, and that the heat can be maintained at 102 de- 
grees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Eggs for incubator hatching should be fresh, the 
fresher the better. None should be over ten days old, 




HATCHING THE EGGS. 31 

although they will hatch when much older if carefully 
preserved under woolen covers, and turned daily. 
The trays should be crowded at first, since, on testing 
the eggs on the fifth day, many may be found infertile 
and will have to be taken out. 

After an incubator full of eggs has once been 
started, no additional eggs should be put in until the 
hatching is completed. This may be accepted as a 
rule to tie to without giving all the reasons for it here. 

Eggs to hatch well must lose a part of the water 
contained in them. This loss occurs by evaporation 
through the pores of the egg-shell. Under the hen 
evaporation is checked just at the right time by a 
slight film of oil from the hen's body that shows itself 
in the gloss that appears on eggs that have been in 
the nest for a few days. In the incubator the evapor- 
ation will continue for the whole period of incubation 
and be excessive unless checked by supplying a moist 
atmosphere to the egg trays. Each manufacturer has 
his own method for furnishing the required moisture, 
or retaining it by proper ventilation. There is enough 
moisture in an egg to hatch it, but improper ventilation 
will drive it out. 

A reliable thermometer is one of the first essen- 
tials to success in artificial hatching. The secret of 
many failures may be traced to thermometers with 
scales inaccurately marked between the points 100 
degrees and 105 degrees, just where accuracy is 
especially required in hatching eggs. 

The proper temperature for hatching is considered 
to be 102 degrees to 103 degrees. This is the tempera- 
ture, not of the egg chamber, but the temperature of 



32 biggie poultry book. 

the upper surface of a fertile, live egg. The tempera- 
ture of an infertile egg, or of an egg containing a dead 
embryo will be lower than that of a live egg lying ad- 
jacent in the same tray. It is important, therefore, in 
testing the temperature to place the bulb upon alive egg. 

By the tenth day the animal heat that has been 
stored in the living embryos in the process of incuba- 
tion becomes quite a factor in the temperature of the 
machine. If the operator is not experienced or the 
machine cannot be trusted to regulate its own tem- 
perature, the thermometer is apt, about this time, to 
shoot up to no degrees and the whole incubator full 
of eggs to be destroyed. From this period to the end 
less artificial heat is required. In a warm room a 
large machine containing several hundred eggs will 
hold its heat for hours at a time without the applica- 
tion of any external heat whatever. 

It is thought necessary to give eggs in incubators 
a daily airing, after the fashion of the hen. This is 
less essential when the hatching is done in a cold 
room. In airing eggs it is best to remove them from 
the machine in the trays and immediately close the 
doors so as not to lower the inside temperature. 

While the eggs are being aired they should also 
be turned. Nearly all machines have devices for doing 
this, a trayful at a time, or automatically, by a clock- 
work contrivance, but in small machines it may be 
done by hand and the relative position of the eggs in 
the trays changed so as to better insure an equal 
chance for all. After the nineteenth day they should 
not be handled, except as the shells are chipped the 
broken side should be turned up. 




Chapter V. 
CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS WITH HENS. 

Keep all chicks out of the wet grass in the early morning. 
It is not the wet feet, but the wet feathers that do the harm. 

—Tim's Wife. 

When the chicks begin to break the 
shell, the importance of a mother-hen with 
a quiet and gentle disposition becomes 
apparent. The advice commonly given to 
let the hen alone until the chicks are all 
out, is sound only in cases where hens are so wild and 
pugnacious that handling them will endanger the 
young, or the attendant is ignorant of the proper thing 
to do. 

It is often good policy to take from the nest the 
chicks that come out first. This leaves more room for 
those that are to hatch, and when out of the nest they 
cannot be trampled on. This is especially wise when 
the mother is heavy, clumsy and fidgety and lacking 
motherly instinct. When several hens are hatching 
at the same date, it will often be found prudent, while 
the chicks are coming out, to transfer all the chicks 
and eggs from an unruly hen to those that exhibit 
more hen-sense. 

All empty shells should be removed from the nest 
at once. Occasionally a chick is unable to get out 
after it has chipped the shell. The experienced hand 
can frequently give aid by carefully breaking th^ shell 



36 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

a little more, or tearing the tough surrounding mem- 
brane. Caution and experience are needed in the 
operation. 

Eggs late in hatching are benefited by putting 
them for a few minutes in warm water tempered to 
about 103 degrees. If containing live chicks they will 
be seen to move in the water. If the chicks are dead 
they will remain perfectly still. After this warm bath 
the eggs should be put back at once under the hen 
without suffering them to become chilled. 

Never in any case take all the chicks from the 
nest of a hen that is afterwards to be used as the 
mother of a brood ; and if the chicks are of several 
colors, leave at least one of each color in the nest. 
Attention to these points will avoid trouble when the 
brood is returned to her. 

Chicks taken from the nest should be put in a 
basket covered with woolen cloth, and placed near a 
stove. Do not remove from the nest until their down 
is dry. Such as show unusual weakness may be 
revived by pouring down their throats a few drops of 
warm, new milk. 

Strong chicks need no food for twenty-four hours 
after hatching. If this time expires before it is con- 
venient to return them to the hen, they may be fed in 
a box by a sunny window, and be put in their basket 
nest again until evening. The hen and her "sample 
lot" may, in the meanwhile, be fed near the nest. 
After dark the rest of the brood should be returned to 
her, and by the next morning mother and chicks are 
ready for the coop, which should be ready for the brood. 

In cold weather it is best to set coops in an open 




CHICKS WITH HENS. 37 

shed. They should always be set on a dry, slightly 
elevated location, so that they cannot be flooded by a 
sudden rainfall. Where the soil is at all wet they 
should be set on a platform made by nailing boards 
on two pieces of scantling. This platform should be 
of such a size that the sides of the coop will just fit 
over it. If allowed to extend outside of the walls the 
rain from the roof will keep the floor damp. 

While the styles of coops are as numerous as their 
makers, the one here illustrated, having roof with 
double pitch and triangular ends, is as 
cheap and serviceable as any. To make 
it, take four pieces of 2 x 3 scantling, cut 
exactly 33 inches long and halved together 
at the top at such an angle as to make the base line of 
the front extend three feet. The coop is made two 
feet deep, thus giving a floor space of 2 x 3 feet. The 
roof may be covered by regular siding, or by fillis- 
tered barn boards cut into lengths of 2 feet 2 inches. 
The rear wall is boarded up solid, the front half way 
down, and the lower half is slatted. A loosely fitting 
door of boards may be hinged to the upper half to 
cover the slats and keep the brood in the coop when 
desirable. For summer weather, ventilation should 
be provided for by raising slightly the lower edges of 
the two uppermost roof boards, one on each side. 

Here is shown a folding coop. The sides are 
hinged by iron pins seen at the dots on the upper front 
board in the cut. The solid rear end and slatted front 
are both hinged to the side and fold 
inward, which permits the sides to 
come together. When "knocked 




38 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

down" a coop occupies but little room when stored 
under shelter, as all coops should be when not in use. 
Whatever the style of coop used, the chicks should 
be fed as soon as they are put into it. This is best 
done at first on a clean board laid on the floor or just 
in front of the coop. 

As to what the first few meals should consist of, 
there is some difference of opinion even among prac- 
tical poultry keepers. It is certain, however, that the 
traditional hard-boiled egg is not essential for the first, 
or for any other meal. When a hen steals her nest 
and brings off a brood, she feeds them successfully on 
weed seeds, insects aud sundries until she brings them 
to the poultry yard and they can get the food fed to 
the rest of the flock. 

Bread crumbs, moistened with sweet milk, are 
acceptable and nourishing for the first meal. Thou- 
sands are started every year on a mixture of corn meal 
and bran, half and half by bulk, scalded. It is well to 
scald this sometime in advance of feeding, and allow 
it to soak up the water and swell. It should be 
crumbly and not pasty. This mixture of corn meal 
and bran may be fed perfectly dry, and is so fed by 
successful poultry growers. A person of much experi- 
ence uses bread crumbs and rolled oats, dry, the first 
week, and then for two weeks a mixture of equal 
parts by bulk of bran, middlings and corn meal, with 
a handful of meat-meal to the quart of the mixture. 
This is scalded an hour before feeding. If the bowels 
of the chicks are too costive he adds more bran, if too 
loose, more middlings. 

Many make mixtures like the above into a stiff 



CHICKS WITH HENS, 39 

batter with milk and baking powder, bake well and 
feed it dry. A woman who has been successful in this 
line gives her recipe for chick-bread as follows : take 
equal parts of sifted ground oats, corn and wheat, 
with wheat bran added equal to the whole bulk of 
ground feed, moisten with skimmed milk, add suffi- 
cient powder and bake. A little raw lean meat or 
finely cut raw bone and meat is beneficial. A little 
only should be given at first ; a piece as big as a grain 
of corn is sufficient for a chick a few days old. This 
food is not essential when the grain ration is mixed 
with milk or dried meat. 

In feeding chicks, as well as fowls, grass or vege- 
tables should not be omitted. In the absence of grass 
in their runs, and in cold weather, chopped onions, let- 
tuce, cabbage or other succulent vegetables should be 
supplied. Short clippings from the lawn, fresh, grassy 
sods, and the sweeping from the barn floor carried to 
their runs will be relished, and furnish the needed 
bulky vegetable food and afford healthful exercise. 
Little chicks should have five or six meals a day until 
three weeks old. 

Gritty matter is required by chicks at the very 
beginning. To supply it, sprinkle coarse sand over 
the board on which they are first fed. If confined in 
houses or yards, or in runs where grit is scarce, it 
should be as carefully supplied as food. It is well to 
have a small trough or box in a convenient place filled 
with gravel, broken oyster or clam shells and granu- 
lated charcoal. The latter is not valuable as grit, but 
is very useful in correcting disorders of digestion. 




amps. 

i 



40 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK. 

a WATER VESSELS. 

Water should be given to the chicks from the 
start. It is best at all times to supply it in fountains 
from which they can drink but cannot get in with 
their feet. If supplied in open vessels they will foul 
it and contract colds, bowel disease or cramps. 
Fig. 1. A convenient water vessel for chicks 

may be made from an old fruit can and 
a flower-pot saucer, Figure 1. Cut a notch or punch 
a hole in the side next to the opened end, have the 
6aucer just a little larger than the can, fill can with 
water, put on sau;er and invert 
quickly. When chicks are older, 
the stone or earthen fountain 
shown here, Figure 2, holding a * IG - 2 - 
half-gallon or more, can be substituted. A 
very convenient fountain is shown in Fig- 
Fig. 3. ure 3, as the handle enables 

it to be carried around like 
a bucket. A tile fountain, preferred by some, is 
shown in Figure 4. 

A common wooden bucket, cut down as shown -p 

in the cut, makes a first-class water *' ' 

vessel, convenient to carry. It should have a board 
over the top, or be placed under a stool to keep the 
water cool and tc prevent the chickens from soiling 
it. 

Before feeding ground oats and corn to little chicks sift out 
the oat hulls. 

It is all right to have coops wind-tight, but all wrong to have 
them air-tight. Chicks must have ventilation as well as warmth. 
If insufficient air be admitted, the atmosphere of the coop be- 
comes not only foul, but damp. 

As soon as the brood is out of the coop in the morning, turn 
it up to the sun and air and spread dry earth over the floor. 
Whitewash the inside often. At midday turn down again. 
" Sweetness and light " applied to coops ! 

A strip of wire netting, one-inch mesh, two feet wide and 
about ten yards long, is "just splendid " for making a tempo- 
rary yard for a hen and her young brood. Easy to put up, easy 
to move, and much better than the old style yard made of foot 
boards set on edge. 

To make small runs for little chicks, make the sides of wide 
boards and cover with wire netting. This is better than making 
high fences. Old fowls cannot get into these covered runs and 
the chicks cannot crawl out through the wire, even if the mesh 
be wide. 





8 

V 

o 




Chapter VI. 
CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS IN BROODERS. 

Feed young- poultry of all kinds early and late and often. 

— Harriet 

The rearing of chicks in 
brooders does not differ mater- 
ially from the ordinary method, 
except that the intelligent in- 
stinct exercised by the hen in 
launched in a cold caring for her brood has to be 
world. exercised by the attendant. 

Whether the chicks should be removed from the 
incubator soon after hatching or be left until nearly 
all are out of the shell, depends a good deal on the 
construction of the machine, especially of the egg- 
drawer. On this point the manufacturer should give 
explicit directions. As a rule, it is advisable to darken 
any windows that may admit light to the egg-drawer 
during the hatching process, to remove chicks as their 
down becomes dry, and all empty shells, but to open 
the incubator as little as possible. While the chicks 
are hatching the temperature is apt to rise but should 
not be allow r ed to go above 105 degi ees. The removal of 
a basketful of chicks will cause the temperature to drop 
suddenly, a large amount of animal heat being thus 
withdrawn. Care must be taken to replace it by a sur- 
plus from the lamp. If the regulator at this stage fails 
to act, the chicks and eggs left in the machine may 



44 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

suffer a chill that will prove fatal. The attendant must, 
therefore, be very watchful at this time. 

As soon as the chicks are dry there should be a 
brooder ready into which they may be put to remain 
for thirty-six hours, where they may learn to eat and 
run out and into the shelter of their silent mother. 

The natural mother is just as warm when hovering 
her brood as when sitting on the eggs. The proper 
temperature of this first brooder must, therefore, be 
close to the hatching heat, say 90 to 96 degrees. This 
should be the heat of the center of brooder around 
which the chicks hover and from which they can move 
away when too warm. A brooder shaped like a box, 
that has warm corners, or that has a uniform tempera- 
ture at all parts from which the chicks cannot escape 
is not safe. In a properly constructed brooder they 
quickly learn when too warm to move away from the 
heat just as they do from the body of the hen. They 
also learn where the source of heat is and will run to 
it when cold, but for the first two days it may be 
necessary to occasionally push them under cover to 
show them the way. 

Instinct teaches the young bird to eat. The cluck 
of the mother hen and her pecking at the food calls 
attention to it and they follow her example. When 
feeding brooder chicks for the first time, it is only 
necessary to place them in the light and to drop the 
food before them in such a manner that their attention 
will be called to it. 

1 "For the first week the brood should be fed either 
in or beside the brooder and be confined near the heat 
so that they cannot stray away and become chilled. 



CHICKS WITH BROODERS. 45 

Much of the sickness and mortality that befalls brooder 
chicks is due to chilling while they are very young, or 
from foul air and dampness in badly constructed 
brooders. 

After ten days, the temperature of the brooder 
may be reduced to 80 or 85 degrees, and still lower in 
two weeks more. As chicks grow they generate more 
and more heat when they nestle together, and so re- 
quire less in the brooder. When the weather becomes 
warm it may be necessary to shut off all heat in the 
day-time and during warm nights. 

Manufacturers are prone to rate the capacity of 
their brooders too high. A brood of fifty is large 
enough no matter what the capacity of the brooder 
may be. Broods of one hundred can be handled until 
a month old, but after this stage is reached such a flock 
outgrows the largest single brooder or apartment. 
Much harm is done by the common practice of put- 
ting large numbers together. 

Each brood of fifty chicks should have an outside 
run of not less than one hundred square feet in which 
to exercise until a month old. After this age they 
should have free range. 

There are many kinds of brooders, some warmed 
by hot air, others by hot water ; some furnish bottom 
heat, others top heat, and still others diffuse a current 
of warm air from the center outward. 
One of the latter is shown in Figure 1. 
Some are built for indoor and others for 
outdoor use ; a double outdoor brooder 
is shown in Figure 2. In raising large 
numbers, single brooders in separate buildings are 




P::§f 



46 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

used by some, while others prefer long houses con- 
taining many apartments, with an individual brooder 
in each. In these long houses some employ a green- 
house heating apparatus, warming the brooders by a 
system of hot- water pipes. 

On general principles it may be said that bottom 
heat is practicable in mild weather only, when little 
artificial heat is required. Top heat, such as is obtained 
by radiation from a tank of hot water overhead, is un- 
natural and gives good results only when the tank is 

narrow and so placed as to 



prevent crowding into 
corners under it. The 
system nearest to nature 
is that which tempers the 
Fig"" Z~ floor and the whole atmos- 

phere of the brooder and gives off the greatest amount 
of warmth either by radiation, or by diffusing a current 
of warm pure air from the center. 

It may be said in favor of long brooder houses 
containing many apartments that they are economical 
to build and manage ; against them, that they are ex- 
pensive to maintain unless run at full capacity. 

In favor of individual brooders and small movable 
houses it may be said, they may be moved to new, 
clean ground whenever desirable ; the flocks can be 
kept separate when disease comes to one part of the 
poultry yard; if fire breaks out in one house it need 
not destroy all, and when the birds are old enough the 
brooder can be removed, perches put in and the house 
affords a home for the flock until sold or moved to the 
hennery. 



Chapter VII. 

GROWING EARLY BROILERS. 

The early bird catches the worm. 

Early eggs, early sitters ; early sitters, early chickens ; early 
chickens, early eggs and early profits. — Tim. 

Broiler chickens are chickens of suitable size for 
broiling. The size established by convenience and 
custom is a weight of one to two pounds each. When 
much above this weight they pass as roasting chick- 
ens. Birds of this weight are tender and toothsome 
and are consumed mostly by persons who are able to 
pay well for the gratification of their tastes. The 
demand comes from wealthy private families and 
high-class hotels and restaurants. 

The market for broilers opens soon after the New 
Year begins but is not at its best until asparagus 
appears. From the middle of March to the middle of 
June, a period of three months, there is generally a 
brisk demand for them. With the beginning of July, 
light-weight broilers are little called for, heavier 
weights are wanted, and as the weight goes up the 
price goes down, so that the poultry keeper finds it to 
his interest to keep his birds and feed them until they 
reach the " roasting " size, say six to eight pounds per 
pair. Growing broilers is winter work, as they must 
all be hatched and reared during the most unfavorable 
season for such operations. Hatching begins in No- 
vember and ends with April, for the chickens, except 



50 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

such as are to be reserved for breeding, must all be in 
market soon after the last of June. 

During the first half of this hatching period it is 
difficult to secure eggs of any kind, and especially 
such as are fertile and will produce strong chicks. 
The difficulty is the greatest just when the need for 
eggs is most imperative. 

Provision must be made for overcoming this diffi- 
culty or the whole business will fail. To buy eggs in 
the general market is a very unsatisfactory method of 
obtaining them. They are apt to be stale or infertile, 
or from undesirable stock. 

The only safe way to get good eggs is to own and 
feed the breeding stock, or to buy of those who know 
how to produce eggs for this purpose. 

As the hens are to lay in winter they must be sur- 
rounded to some extent with summer conditions. 
This means that they must have comfortable houses, 
food suitable for producing eggs and plenty of exercise. 

Whatever treatment hens may receive they will 
not lay well if moulting, nor if they have been put 
through a forcing process during the summer. The 
first eggs laid by pullets are of little value for hatch- 
ing. The hens selected for making up the breeding 
stock should be well over their moult, not too fat and 
in good health. If pullets are chosen they should be 
from the early broods. 

The hens most likely to meet the requirements 
of the case during November and December will be 
found among those hatched late in the previous sum- 
mer and fall. By the time these are exhausted the 
older hens and early pullets will be ready to continue 
the egg supply. 



:EARI,Y BROII^RS. 51 

Suitable hens having been secured they should be 
mated with early-hatched cockerels. 

Since the work of caring for the chicks in winter 
weather is arduous, and as prices decline rapidly after 
a certain date, it is of much importance to the poultry 
keeper to have chicks that grow to the proper size in 
the least possible time. There is a difference in 
breeds and crosses in respect to quickness of growth. 
Some will attain to a merchantable weight in eight 
weeks, while others will require from ten to sixteen 
weeks. 

Among the pure breeds that make quick-growing 
broiler chicks may be mentioned Wyandottes, Ply- 
mouth Rocks and Light Brahmas. Leghorns grow 
quickly to the broiler stage, but are rather small. 
They make a good cross with Brahmas and Cochins, 
Leghorn males being mated with the Asiatic hens. 

As broilers when they are dressed for market are in 
the pin-feather stage, it is desirable that these feathers 
should be light in color, for if dark the smallest one 
left on the carcass is apparent, and the large ones 
when plucked leave a stain on the skin. For rearing 
broilers, therefore, fowls of light plumage, other 
qualities being equal, should always be chosen. Buff- 
colored fowls have light colored pin-feathers and are 
always safe to use for this purpose. 

When the appearance of the carcass is not a mat- 
ter of importance it is safe to use any Mediterranean- 
Asiatic cross. Houdan males may also be used with 
Asiatics or with Dorkings with good results. A -Ply- 
mouth Rock or Houdan cross with a breed having any 
black in the plumage is apt to produce progeny with 



52 



BIGGIVE POULTRY BOOK. 




solid black plumage. To secure both light pin- 
feathers and the yellow skin so much prized in some 
markets, a White Leghorn-Buff Cochin cross will fill 
the bill. A White Plymouth Rock-Buff Cochin cross 
is also to be commended both for broilers and larger 
roasting chickens. 

The hatching of broiler chicks on a large scale 
must be done with incubators, since but few hens are 
broody in fall and early winter. The brooding must 
also be done in artificial mothers, and for the most 
part, under cover of a good roof. 

An individual brooder house in 
common use among broiler raisers 
is shown here. It is five feet four 
inches by eight feet on the ground. 
The roof in front is divided into 
two parts, three feet are covered by wire netting and 
over this cotton cloth which may be rolled up when 
weather permits ; the other part is the door for the 
attendant. The rear wall is three feet six inches and 
the front one foot nine inches. A yard four by six- 
teen feet extends from one side. 

A section of a good type of a long house is shown 
in perspective at Figure I. It is eighteen feet wide, 
divided into pens three feet wide, each containing a 
brooder designed to hover fifty chicks. By reference 
to Figure 2 it will be seen that the glass run is shut 

off from the house by 
a solid, hanging door 
that swings inward 
against the front wall. 
This is opened in the 
Fig. i. 





EARLY BROILERS. 53 

day-time to give plenty of sunlight, and closed at 
night to shut out the cold that enters through the glass. 
It is seven feet high in front and four and one-half 
at the back. The passageway is at the rear and is 
sunk sixteen inches, thus allowing the building to 
be made low without compelling the attendant to 
stoop. The brooders are set along this passageway 
in such a manner as to bring their floors on a level 
with the floor of the house. Light and ventilation 
are both supplied from the rear 
as well as from the front wall. 

One who has raised thou- 
sands of broilers successfully 
gives his method of feeding as Fi g- 2. 

follows : " I give no feed for thirty-six hours, and don't 
allow them to go more than a foot from the brooder. 

" For the first two weeks I feed them cake made 
as follows : two quarts coarse corn meal, one quart 
bran, one quart middlings, one teacup ground meat 
(be sure that there is no pork or fish about it), one cup 
fine bone, wet with a scant pint of water. The secret 
in making this cake is in not getting too much water 
in it and in baking it thoroughly in a quick oven. 
Feed three times a day all they will eat up clean in a 
short time. Overfeeding is a cause of bowel trouble. 
Give them all the water they want, with the chill 
taken off. 

" After they are two weeks old I take one quart of 
corn and oats sifted, one quart bran, one pint each of 
middlings and coarse corn meal, a cup each of meat 
and bone, moisten with hot water and let it stand a 
short time. I add some of this to the cake gradually 



54 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK. 

until they are three weeks old, then I drop the cake 
and feed the other until they are six weeks or two 
months old. Then I take two quarts corn and oats 
ground, one quart corn meal, one quart middlings, one 
pint of bran, one pint each of bone and meat, wet 
with hot water, using more water than for the small 
chicks. Let it swell before feeding. 

"Charcoal is very necessary to keep chicks 
healthy. Have it ground fine and keep before them 
all the time, also ground flint. I hash them up onions 
and cabbage occasionally. 

"Don't let the chicks run out in the yard in 
winter until they are a month old. ' ' 



SPRING CHICKENS. 

Rub off the dusty windows and let in the light. 

X,ettuce affords a quick-growing and choice green food. 

The market has never yet been overstocked with broilers. 

A thrifty chick will weigh one pound when six weeks old. 

It does not pay to feed runts. Weed them out and fertilize 
the garden. 

Dry earth is the best and cheapest disinfectant and deodor- 
izer obtainable. Store plenty of it. 

If you can't get milk and can get creamery whey, use it. 
While not equal to milk it is a good substitute. 

Raw chopped onions fed at night are said to be a safeguard 
against roup. They are wholesome at any rate. 

Let the flock have a space on the ground somewhere covered 
with litter, and keep them in a state of activity. 

Pour boiling water on wheat and let it soak over night. 
Give the broilers in the fattening coop an occasional feed of it. 

Cash in the pocket is not in danger of gapes, cats, crows, 
rats, roup or cholera, and therefore is better than the chickens 
in the coop, if they are old enough for market. 

Boiled rice, sweetened with brown sugar, is excellent for 
putting the finishing touches on the early broilers. Give them 
one or two meals a day for a week before sending them to mar- 
ket. Broken rice can be bought cheap. 



Chapter VIII. 
HENS EXPRESSLY FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 

The best " egg producer" is good food and plenty of it. 
The hen that sits on the roost or fence in zero weather, or 
stands on one leg in the snow all day, is not a winter layer. 

— Harriet. 

Keeping hens for laying purposes chiefly is a 
profitable part of the poultry business when rightly 
conducted and when the surrounding conditions are 
favorable. 

The selection of the laying stock is a matter of 
much importance. There is the "laying type" 
among hens just as there is the " milk type " anion? 
dairy cows. These are found 
to some extent among all 
breeds but in larger propor- 
tion among the Mediterranean 
class. Generally speaking, 
good layers are fine -boned. 
This is seen in the shank which 
is slender and relatively short. 
This feature is determined by one of the "laying 
comparing specimens of each type. 

breed by themselves, that is, Leghorn hens must be 
compared with Leghorn hens ; Brahma hens with 
Brahma hens, etc. A small feminine head with promi- 
nent eyes and a slender neck are also indications of a 
good layer, just as similar features in a cow betoken a 
copious milker. The body of a good layer is rather 
long and wed^e-shaped, smaller in front than back. 




58 BIGGLE) POULTRY BOOK. 

The good layer is of a lively, active, restless disposi- 
tion, ready to play or fight with her companions and 
always in search of something to do or to eat. 

Any one who has been a careful observer of hens 
will recognize the business hen as soon as his eyes rest 
upon her. Hens of the opposite character are just as 
readily detected by their coarse-boned shanks, thick 
necks, masculine heads and masculine make-up. 

The breed to be chosen for layers will depend 
partly on the taste of the poultry keeper, to some 
extent on the market in which the eggs are to be sold, 
and on whether the owner wishes to combine meat 
production and the sale of pure-bred eggs for hatching 




HOUSES AND YARDS OF A FANCY POULTRY RAISER. 

with the market-egg business. The breed that every- 
body pronounces "best" for laying or for any other 
purpose has not yet been discovered. Some prefer 
pure-bred hens, others crosses. 

It is generally conceded that the Mediterranean 
breeds lay the largest number of eggs. Their eggs 
are mostly white or but slightly tinted, and have thin 



HENS FOR KGGS. 59 

shells. Their color is objectionable in some markets 
and their fragile shells render them more liable to 
break in shipping. When the surplus hens have to 
be marketed for meat, they do not make first-class 
dressed poultry. What, therefore, is gained in the 
number of eggs may be partly or wholly lost in sell- 
ing the dressed meat. This is the argument on one 
side. On the other side it is maintained that the 
small breeds seldom become broody, mature quickly 
and come quickly into profit, and that these facts 
combined with the increased number of eggs laid, 
compensate for any loss in weight or price of carcass. 

Those who combine the raising of broiler and 
roasting chickens or capons with the production of 
eggs, generally choose the American breeds or crosses. 

When a poultry keeper can find sale for pure-bred 
eggs and fowls in connection with his egg business, 
the breed that is most popular with buyers is the breed 
he is apt to prefer. 

Those who have a special or private trade for 
darkly tinted eggs should select Wyandottes, Plymouth 
Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and Brahmas. 

Cochins, Poland and the English class are seldom 
chosen for stocking an egg farm. 

Whether a poultry keeper shall raise his own hens 
or buy them, depends on various circumstances. Fully 
one half of all chickens raised will be cockerels. If, 
therefore, five hundred pullets are wanted, one thou- 
sand chickens must be raised, and more than this must 
be hatched, for some will always die before reaching 
a marketable size. Some who practice the rearing of 
their own layers, give at least plausible figures to prove 



60 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

that the sale of cockerels yields enough profit to pay 
for the raising of the pullets to the laying age, so that 
they cost practically nothing. This may be a rosy 
view, true only in certain favorable conditions. It is 
undoubtedly true that those who grow their own stock 
can have the kind they want, and are not compelled 
to take a motley collection such as can be gathered by 
promiscuous purchase. 

The managers of some of the large egg farms fur- 
nish eggs for hatching, from such stock as they choose, 
to farmers in the surrounding country to hatch for 
them, and buy the pullets at a certain age and price 
agreed upon between the contracting parties. This 
plan works well, as it leaves the operator free to give 
his entire time to the care of the layers, and also per- 
mits him to conduct his business on a smaller area and 
with less capital. For without the rearing attachment 
less land, fewer buildings, and less labor are required. 

The most successful hen farms consist mainly of 
houses with yards of only moderate size. Free range 
is not a necessity for hens kept chiefly for eggs. It is 
stoutly affirmed by those who have had experience 
with both methods that with proper care a flock will 
produce a fifth more eggs in confinement than when 
at liberty. Greater care is required with shut-in hens, 
but there are compensating advantages: they are 
under the attendant's eye at all times, are easily con- 
trolled, fed and tended, and out of danger from en- 
emies, and cannot commit depredations on the field or 
garden crops of their owner or his neighbors. 

Except in sections where land is low in price and 
deep snow does not fall, the plan of colonizing hens in 



HENS FOR EGGS. 6l 

small houses scattered over many acres, and giving 
them free range, is not at all feasible when the object 
is to produce market eggs. 

The style of house most economical to build, and 
that best serves its purpose on an egg farm, is a long, 
low shed-roofed structure, divided into apartments 
and facing south or southeast. Several typical build- 
ings of this description are owned by a noted egg 
farmer. They are each two hundred and sixteen feet 
long, ten feet wide, seven feet high in front and four 
and one-half feet in the rear. The front leans back 
one foot, making it exactly ten feet wide, saving two 
hundred and sixteen feet of roofing, and giving the 
windows a slant so as to get a stronger sunlight on the 
floor. Hemlock frame and boards are used, the front 
battened and the roof and rear wall covered with tarred 
felt. The interior is partitioned off every twenty-four 
feet, giving two hundred and forty square feet of floor 
space to each apartment. There are two large win- 
dows to the front of each room, these are made to 
slide and serve also as doors into the yards in front. 
The partitions are boarded up three feet, and wire 
netting used above the boards. There is a gate two 
feet wide on the front side of each partition, hung 
with double-acting spring hinges, so the attendant can 
walk right through with two pails of feed or water 
without stopping to open or close them. A platform 
twenty-eight inches wide, two feet above the floor, 
runs along the rear of each room, and ten inches above 
this platform is a perch. The nests are placed under- 
neath the platform on the floor, the hens entering 
from the rear. These houses all have earth floors. 



62 BIGGIE POUI/fRY BOOK. 

Each apartment accommodates thirty to forty hens, 
and each flock has a yard in front of its apartment 
twenty-four by sixty-four feet, in which are growing 
one or two peach or plum trees. These houses for 
convenience, cheapness and practical business cannot 
easily be excelled. 

The general rules of feeding given in Chapter II 
when treating of the best method of getting fertile 
eggs for hatching, will apply in this case. 

It will, however, be entirely safe in feeding hens for 
market eggs alone to force them a little harder by feed- 
ing more highly seasoned and more nitrogenous foods 
than would be advisable when hatching eggs are wanted. 

On every egg farm there should be a large boiler 
or steam cooker for cooking vegetables and making 
compounds of meat, ground grain and vegetables A 
good morning ration may be made of equal parts of 
corn meal, fine middlings, bran, ground oats and ground 
meat. This should be stirred into a pot of cooked 
vegetables while boiling hot until the mass is as stiff 
as can be manipulated by a pair of strong arms. Sea- 
soned with salt and cayenne pepper. Potatoes, beets, 
carrots, turnips, onions or any vegetable clean and 
free from decay will be acceptable. Cut clover hay 
may be substituted for vegetables for an occasional 
meal. The above contains a variety of food elements 
such as compose the egg, bone and muscle of the hen, 
the fat-forming elements not being prominent. For 
the noon meal, wheat is the best single grain. It may- 
be mixed with good oats and scattered in chaff or 
leaves on the feeding floor. The night feed should be 
a light one, consisting of whole corn. 



HENS FOR EGGS. 63 

Plenty of fresh, clean water is just as essential as 
food. Sharp gravel or grit of some kind is as much 
needed as food and water, and should be accessible at 
all times. 

Green bones and meat shaved in the modern bone 
cutters is a prime article for laying hens. It may be 
fed to advantage in place of the ground, dry meat, 
three days in the week, an ounce to each hen. Those 
who are near large cities can sometimes get cooked 
lean meat and bone from bone-boiling establishments. 
This is an excellent form of meat for use in cool 
weather. All forms of meat should be fed cautiously, 
a little at first and more as the fowls become accus- 
tomed to it. 

Some of the most successful persons in this busi- 
ness have land in addition to their poultry yards and 
raise a considerable portion of the food the hens eat. 

The farm is run in the interests of the hens. If 
cows are kept the skim-milk is fed to the hens. All 
vegetables except such as are used in the family, or 
are extra fine and command an extra price, find their 
way to the poultry yard. Clover, oats, wheat, rye and 
corn fodder are harvested green, run through a fodder 
cutter and fed to the hens. Cabbages are raised and 
buried, turnips and beets are grown and stored for 
winter feeding. Any clover not needed for summer 
feeding is cured and used in winter. 

For the health of the hens, and to secure the 
largest egg production, it is necessary to furnish an 
abundance of succulent and bulky food along with the 
more concentrated grains and meat. It is cheaper 
to raise this than to buy it, while the grains and 



64 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

meat can probably be bought cheaper than they can 
be raised. 

On an egg farm the most exacting labor is required 
in winter, for the wise manager aims to produce win- 
ter eggs, since prices are then at their best. Summer 
is a season of comparative leisure in the hennery and 
the extra help required in the winter may be profit- 
ably employed on the farm in growing necessary 
supplies. 

As to how long hens should be kept for laying 
authorities do not agree, but it is doubtful if they 
should ever be retained long after they have passed 
the spring months of their second year. During 
spring and early summer dressed hens command 
good prices. So fast, therefore, as they show signs or 
breaking down with too much fat, quit laying and 
become broody, they should be started on their way to 
market. By midsummer the stock in the houses 
should be reduced to one-half or less of the full win- 
ter complement and consist only of the best of the 
yearlings. 

Cut green clover fine, and feed it to all fowls confined in 
yards. Splendid. 

Observe how a flock will nestle on a well-li'.tered floor in 
winter. A hint to the wise. 

Snow is a poor substitute for water. Fowls should not be 
compelled to eat it to quench their thirst. 

This is a fairly well balanced daily ration for one hundred 
hens : 

Clover Hay 2.74 lbs. 

Potatoes 2.74 " 

Corn Meal 5.48 " 

Ground Oats 2.74 " 

Cottonseed Meal. 274 " 

Barley Meal. 2.192 " 

Total 16. 166 lbs. 

or in round numbers, sixteen pounds of the mixture. 



Chapter IX. 
THE FARMER'S FLOCK. 

Give the hen a good chance to scratch and she will raise that 
mortgage for you. 

A hen will eat anything a hog will eat and make a good deal 
better use of it.— Tim's Wife. 

The larger part of all the eggs and poultry sold in 
the markets of the great cities and smaller towns 
comes from the farmer's flock. The amount from 
each is small, but the aggregate immense. When 
proper attention is given to this flock the profit is as 
large, if not larger, than from any other part of the 
farm operations. 

The mistake of keeping too small a number of 
fowls is sometimes, though rarely, made. Fowls, with 
their omnivorous and voracious appetites, are excellent 
scavengers, and if allowed the privileges of the prem- 
ises will utilize much that would otherwise go to waste. 
This wastage on large farms is sufficient to supply a 
flock of one hundred laying hens three-fourths of all 
the food they need ; if but ten or twenty be kept 
there will be more or less loss. 

The much more frequent mistake is made of over- 
stocking. The wastage is consumed, the crops in the 
vicinity of the buildings are destroyed, large quanti- 
ties of grain in addition are fed, the houses are crowded 
to suffocation, and the ground in the entire circle of 
the farm buildings becomes befouled. All may go 



68 



BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 



well for a few years and then disease invades and dis- 
aster comes, and the farmer arrives at the conclusion 
that there is no profit in chickens. 

The size of the flock should be regulated by the 
circumstances surrounding each case. L,arge stock 
farms where large quantities of grain are used, where 
there is plenty of grass, numerous shelter-sheds and 
no truck gardens near the house, furnish favorable 
conditions for keeping a large flock with profit. 

Zz'" ■ ■:,. . Dairy farms, 

also, where 
grass and 
skim - milk are avail- 
able, will support eco- 
nomically a big flock of lay- 
ing hens or grow capons of 
good quality. One who follows 
trucking or small fruit growing 
must limit his flocks 
or confine them in 
yards during the grow- 
ing and fruiting season, 
which adds to the ex- 
pense and care. If 
properly managed the 
expense and care will 
be repaid, because on such farms there is a con- 
siderable offal that can be utilized for poultry food. 
Too little care is given by the average farmer to 
the breeding of his flock. The quickest way to raise 
the standard of such a flock with little expense is to 
cull out and sell old, broken down, scrubby and infer- 




PETER tumbledown's poultry 
HOUSE. 



THE FARMER'S FI,OCK. 69 

ior specimens and mate the balance with pure-bred 
males. If it is desired to increase the size use males 
a little larger than the common stock. Very large 
males should never be used with small or medium 
hens. If the hens are large and heavy use a male a 
little smaller. This process may be continued to ad- 
vantage each year, but always use pure-bred and 
never the cross-bred males. The pure-bred birds may 
be hatched from eggs bought or they may be pur- 
chased late in summer or autumn from breeders who 
will sell such as are slightly off color, or have some 
slight defect in comb or in other minor points that do 
not affect their value as a farmer's fowl. 

In planning and erecting farm buildings too little 
attention is given to providing proper shelter for 
poultry. While elaborate and 
costly structures are not re- 
quired, they should be storm 
proof, free from drafts in 
cold weather, have ample 
ground-floor space, and be 
convenient for the attendant. 

The last point should not be overlooked, since a very 
little saving of time and labor each day of the three 
hundred and sixty-five, amounts to a considerable sav- 
ing in the year, and this may be accomplished by a 
small additional outlay at the start. 

The style, size and cost must be determined by the 
builder's needs, taste and pocket-book. There is no 
" best " house for all situations and all persons. A few 
are given rather as suggestions than as models to copy. 

The style illustrated by Figure 1 is economical of 




7o 



BlGGIvK POUI/TRY BOOK. 



lumber, as it consists chiefly of roof. It will be an 
advantage, especially on low ground or clayey soil, to 
have the floor filled in six or eight inches deep with 
cinders or broken stone and covered with gravel 
or sand. The ventilator is for summer use alone and 
should be tightly closed in winter. The cut repre- 
sents a house twelve by sixteen feet, set on a wall two 
feet high, the point of the roof being eight feet above 
the floor. 

Figure 2 exhibits a good type of house for general 
use. As will appear from the illustration it has two 
enclosed apartments with an open shed in the center. 
Both the apartments 
being raised thirty in- 
ches from the ground 
the whole floor space 
is available as a scratch- 
ing-room. The house 
is twelve by twenty- Fig. 2. 

four feet, the shed and end parts being eight by twelve 
feet each. One end is the roosting-room, and the 
other the laying and hatching-room. The fowls reach 
these rooms when the doors are shut by means of cleated 
boards extending from the ground to an opening in the 
floor. A passageway from one to the other 
eighteen inches wide and enclosed by 
wire netting is shown in the cut along 
fig. 3. ^.j le rear wa n f the shed. Figure 3 shows 
the plan of this house. 

A serviceable and good all-around house is shown 
at Figure 4. A good width for a building of this 
character is eighteen feet, this allowing three feet for 




the Farmer's fi,ock. 



7i 




Fig. 4. 



r 



Fig. 5. 



the hall or passageway in 
the rear, nine feet for the 
main house and six feet for 
the scratching-room or shed. 

Figure 5 shows how this 
house may be divided for 
two flocks. The nests are accessible from the hall. 
It is always convenient to have a yard of generous 
dimensions, securely enclosed, in which it is possible 
to confine the flock while crops are young, or when- 
ever desirable to do so. This yard should 
be large enough to plow with a horse and 
be planted with plum or peach trees, and 
grape vines to afford shade in hot weather, 
and for growing fruit. 

The matter of fencing the poultry yard may be 
left in the hands of the owner, with the suggestion 
that it is cheapest in the end to build a substantial 
fence at the start. The cheapest temporary and mov- 
able fence that can be erected is one of wire netting. 
This should have posts every eight feet, a board at the 
bottom, but no rail or board at the top. The posts 
need not be heavy. 

The farmer's flock should have as careful feeding 
and attention as any other stock on the farm. To in- 
sure such attention some one member of the family 
should take the matter in hand and make it his or her 
business. Regularity in feeding is essential to the 
best results. Economical feeding means that all the 
wastes of the family table, the dairy, the garden and 
the field should be turned into eggs and poultry meat. 



72 



BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 



N 



A 

HANGING 

NEST. 



NEST NOTES. 

Use small hens to hatch thin-shelled eggs. 

If the hen deserts the nest for a few hours and 
allows the eggs to become chilled, do not throw the 
eggs away. Let them have another trial ; 1 hey will 
stand exposure for a long while and yet hatch well. 

In April showers look after the young broods. 
A " saturated solution " of chicken is N. G., except 
for soup. 

Boil beef or pork cracklings with small potatoes, add corn 
meal, mash all together and make a dish fit for the chickens of 
a king. 

The most acceptable lays of spring are furnished by the hens. 

It is bad policy to keep the big, slow-motioned fowls and the 
small, nervous, quick-motioned breeds together in one flock. 
They require different feeding and treatment ; they do not har- 
monize. 

A hen's teeth are in her gizzard. Sand, gravel and like sub- 
stances are the teeth. Keep them sharp. 

A state of fear and excitement is unfavorable to egg produc- 
tion. Every movement among a flock of hens should be gentle. 

The wide-awake poultry keeper is up and around among his 
flocks early in the morning and late in the evening. 

Drinking water in cold weather should be neither hot nor 
ice-cold, but simply cool, and always clear and fresh. 

A good dry-mash mixture : too parts each of bran, middlings, 
ground alfalfa and beef scraps. 




A GENERAL-PURPOSE HEN, 



Chapter X. 
THE VILLAGE HENNERY. 

In cold weather keep your eyes open and the cracks in the 
hen house closed. — Harriet. 

The hen turns grass into greenbacks , grain into gold, and 
even coins silver out of sand. 

Persons living in towns and villages may often- 
times find pleasure and profit in keeping a small 
flock of poultry. The mistake most frequently made 
by those who undertake to do so is in attempting to 
keep too many. When confined in small yards they 
become unhealthy and unproductive ; if permitted to 
roam they become a nuisance in the neighborhood 
and a prolific source of unneighborly feeling and 
of disputes which only a justice of the peace can 
settle. 

To maintain a peaceful mind and a quiet com- 
munity attention should be paid to the variety of 
fowls kept, and to the yard fences. The Asiatic 
breeds are particularly fitted by their quiet nature and 
indisposition to rove for stocking a village hennery. 
They not only thrive better in close confinement than 
the smaller and more active breeds, but are more 
easily confined. A fence four feet high will restrain 
them. If the fence be made of wire netting, a six- 
inch fence slat at the bottom and three feet of netting 
above it will be sufficient. Temporary runs can be 
made for them in the garden or anywhere, by driving 
down stakes and attaching yard-wide netting. 



76 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

The tendency of these fowls is to lay on too much 
fat, but this can be regulated by feeding but little 
grain or other fattening foods, and compelling them 
to exercise by scratching in leaves, chaff or soil. 
The bane of small flocks is overfeeding and this must 
be avoided to get the best results from Asiatics. All 
scraps from the table that commonly go to prowling 
dogs and cats should be fed to the chickens. Milk or 
other liquid wastes may be mixed with bran. They 
should have a liberal supply of grass from the lawn, 
and waste green vegetables from the garden, and only 
a small ration of grain. Thus fed they will lay and will 
not grow fat. Lawn clippings, dried in the shade and 
stored in bags make the choicest of winter greens for 
a village flock, or indeed for any fowls. 

• Those who prefer the smaller and more active 
breeds must provide higher fences, or where the runs 
are small, make the fences low and cover the entire 
top with netting. Sometimes in towns where the 

houses are crowded close 
together it is difficult to 
get sufficient sunlight 
and air in the poultry 
U yard to render the quar- 
ters dry and healthful. 
In such cases high picket 
fences make the diffi- 
culty still worse, and wire netting is much to be pre- 
ferred both for utility and appearance. 

While an expensive house is not a necessity in a 
town, it need not be rude and unsightly. Some simple 
ornamentation is within the reach of nearly every 




the village; hennery. 77 

one, and if it could be more generally applied would 
greatly add to the attractiveness of a rear view of a 
village street. The house on page 76 may be called 
the Farm, Journal village poultry house. It repre- 
sents a structure ten by twenty feet, with eight feet of 
the length enclosed and twelve feet left open for a 
shed. The interior arrangements as well as the size 
and exterior ornamentation may be left to the needs 
and fancy of the owner. 

^_^ Another building well 

ia^^^^ adapted for a small flock is 
fe shown by Figure 1. This 
house is ten by fifteen feet, 
Fi g. 1. five feet high in the rear and 

seven feet in front, with a hood or overshoot. The 
roosting-room occupies five feet of the length and is 
elevated two feet from the floor. A board along 
the front keeps in any litter that may be thrown into 
the shed. Such a house permits the flock 
to live out of doors and to enjoy plenty of 



•i^ur ^ 



\w ~ 



air at all times. During stormy weather 
they may be confined to the house by F1G.2! 
covering the front with a screen of wire netting. The 
plan of this house is shown in Figure 2. 

A flock of Bantams will be found useful where 
room is limited. Although their eggs are small, they 
are prolific layers. The birds themselves being small 
do little injury to lawns or gardens when at liberty, 
while they destroy many harmful 
insects. 

The small, portable house and 
run here illustrated is admirably bantam house 




78 BIGGIE POUI/fRY BOOK. 

adapted to accommodate a flock of these little 
beauties. The netting door is divided so that the top 
of it may be opened by the attendant and feed and 
water put in the run, without entering or letting the 
chicks out. The whole structure should be made of 
light material and of a size to render it easily mov- 
able by two persons of ordinary strength. 

As the purpose of keeping poultry by the average 
villager is to supply his own table with eggs and 
poultry but few chicks should be hatched. These 
should be kept separated as much as possible from 
the flock of fowls ; colonized, if possible, in a differ- 
ent quarter until ready for the table or to take the 
place of the laying stock in the common runs. 

When no hatching eggs are required no males 
should be kept in the flock. They are useless board- 
ers and will soon ■ ' eat their heads off, ' ' and should 
themselves first be eaten. 



The rooster, speaking botanically, is the crow-cuss of the 
poultry yard. 

Dump old mortar and broken plaster in the poultry yard. 

Damaged grain may be used if scorched slightly before 
feeding. 

Puny, sickly birds are only profitable for fertilizing trees 
and vines. 

A good cat and vermin-proof 
coop for the village hennery is 
often necessary. A simple one is 
shown herewith. 

As an egg persuader, try equal 
parts of bran, corn meal and ground 
oats, mixed with one-eighth part of linseed meal ; that is, four 
quarts of the linseed meal to one bushel of the grain mixture. 
If snow that falls on the roof is likely to melt and drip 
through, shovel it off. A shower bath of snow-water means 
roup and death later on. 




r ■: 




Chapter XI. 
BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 

Don't estimate the size of the egg from the length of the cackle 
Fine birds are not made by fine feathers. — Harriet. 

The American Poultry Association publish a book 
called the "American Standard of Perfection," that 
contains a description of all kinds of fowls the Asso- 
ciation thinks worthy of recognition as pure-bred 
poultry. The descriptions of this book are of ideally 
perfect specimens of the kind, and are intended to set 
up a model for breeders to follow. Every few 
years the Standard is revised to admit new breeds. 

A scale of W^^^mg^&^S^^ 

points is given 
by which fowls . W 

are compared 
with one anoth- ^ 

er and by which H 

they are judged ■ t;^ 

and rated when -salM&tah 

on exhibition. 
Certain disqual- 
ifying marks 
are also men- white Plymouth rocks. 

tioned that exclude all specimens having them from 
competing at exhibitions. 

This " Standard of Perfection " is, in fact, the 




82 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

fancier's text book. Thoroughbred chickens are 
divided into ten general classes. 

The first is the American class. This includes six 
breeds : Plymouth Rock, of which there are three 
varieties — the Barred, White and Buff; Wyandottes, 
of which there are seven varieties — Silver, Golden, 
White, Buff, Black, Partridge and Silver Penciled ; 
Javas, in two varieties — Black and Mottled ; American 
Dominiques, Rhode Island Reds and Buckeyes. 

Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island 
Reds are the most numerous and widely known. 

The characteristic shape and appearance of the 
Single-Comb Barred Plymouth Rock is well exhib- 
ited in colored Plate I. The color of the plumage 
is a grayish- white, each feather crossed with bars of 
blue-black. The color is the same as that of the 
Dominique. They are a general-purpose chicken, 

are superior 
layers and 
make shapely 
dressed poul- 
try. Being 
well adapted 
to farm con- 
ditions they 
have long 
been popular 
white wyandottes. as the "farm- 

er's fowl." A full-grown cock should weigh nine and 
one-half pounds, and a hen two pounds less. The other 
varieties of the breed differ only in comb or plumage. 
Wyandottes, in all of the many varieties, have 




mas less. 



BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 83 

also a reputation for general usefulness. The Silvers 
are shown in colored Plate II. They are compactly 
built and make a fine appearance as dressed poultry, 
at any age. A mature male should weigh eight and 
one-half pounds, and a hen two pounds less. 

Javas and Rhode Island Reds 
have some peculiarities of their 
own, but are similar in size and 
other respects to Plymouth Rocks. 

Buckeyes are a dark, rich, 
velvety red, have pea combs, and 
weigh : Matured male, nine pounds; 
matured female, three pounds less. 

Dominiques have rose combs, 
a neat, trim shape and a gray, black java pullet. 
hawk-colored plumage. They are the oldest American 
breed and from a cross of these, with a larger breed, 
the Plymouth Rocks originated. 

The second general division is the Asiatic class, 
which includes Brahmas, Light and Dark ; Cochins — 
Buff, Partridge, White and Black ; Langshans — Black 
and White. 

Light Brahmas, illustrated in colored Plate III, 
are the largest of all the breeds. They are a modifi- 
cation, by careful breeding for many years, of the old 
Brahma Pootras. As now bred they are a noble and 
attractive fowl and have also great practical merit. 
As layers they equal, if they do not surpass, any large 
fowls. For making heavy broilers at eight and ten 
weeks of age they are among the very best. After 
they are three months old they do not make first-class 
dressed poultry until well matured, on account of 



84 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

their rapid growth and bony frame. The standard 
weights for matured birds are twelve pounds for cocks 
and nine and one-half pounds for hens, but they 
frequently exceed these figures. 

Dark Brahmas are shown in colored Plate IV. 
These are usually a pound lighter in weight than the 
Light Brahmas, and while they have the Brahma 
carriage, their shape resembles their Cochin cousins, 
thus betraying their probable origin in a Light Brahma- 
Cochin cross. There is a marked difference in the 
plumage of the male and female. When carefully 
bred to feather a flock of Dark Brahmas presents a 
very attractive appearance. They have for many 
years been highly prized for market purposes, espe- 
cially by those who grow capons. 

Buff Cochins, colored Plate V, are the old yel- 
low Shanghais with their stilted legs and long necks 
reduced by careful breeding. The illustration is 
a faithful likeness of well-bred Buffs of the present- 
day type. They have no more neck or length of leg 
than seems absolutely necessary, their bodies are 
blocky and covered with an abundance of soft, fluffy 
plumage of a creamy, golden hue. Their plump form 
and yellow skin make them popular with market 
poultrymen. In disposition they are gentle, quiet, 
even lazy, and are easily restrained. They are only 
fairly good layers, but are persistent sitters and good 
mothers. Since their introduction into this country 
Buff Cochins have probably been used for crossing 
upon the common stock of farmers to a gi eater extent 
than any other single breed. The standard weight of 
mature birds of the breed is, for cocks, eleven pounds ; 
and for hens, eight and one-half pounds. 



BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 



85 



The other varieties of Cochins differ only in color. 
The Partridge Cochins are admirably represented by 
colored Plate VI, a reproduction from life of supe- 
rior specimens of the variety. The plumage is very 
beautiful, being like that of the famous Black-Breasted 
Red Game, and suggests an origin in a cross of Game 
and Cochin. 

Tangshans are a valuable accession to the Asiatic 
class, having reached us by way of England. As will 
be seen by referring to colored Plate VII, they have 
a shape and carriage peculiar to themselves. Their 
plumage is abundant but not so fluffy as that of the 
Brahmas and Cochins. The plumage of the Blacks 
is a glossy black, showing a beautiful greenish metallic 
sheen when viewed in a good light. Langshans are 
considered to be the best layers of their class ; although 
their skin is white they are a good market fowl and 
their meat of superior quality. 

The third class is the Mediterranean. This em- 
braces Leghorns, of which there are seven varieties — 
Brown, Rose-Comb Brown, 
White, Rose-Comb White, 
Buff, Black, Silver Duck- 
wing ; Minorcas — Black, 
Rose - Comb Black, and 
White ; Andalusians, 
White - Faced Black 
Spanish and Anconas. 

Of these, the Leg- 
horns are the most widely 
disseminated and most 
numerous. The Single- buff leghorns. 




86 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

Comb Browns are well illustrated by colored Plate 
VIII, which exhibits, also, the general type of the 
breed in respect to shape and carriage. They are smaller 
than any of the American class, sprightly, active, 
light of wing, early to mature and famous for laying 
the greatest number of eggs of any of our domestic 
fowls. Their eggs are of medium size, but large in 
comparison with the hens that lay them. 

The brooding propensity has been bred out of the 

whole class to a great extent, and they are commonly 

referred to as non-sitters. This is only relatively true, 

for the best-bred hens among them will occasionally 

become broody. It is, however, true of all that they 

■i$fa cannot be depended 

MM on for hatching and 

aBm rearing chicks. 

7* iHM The Minorcas 

■fe H have a general resem- 

I ' ^»IB blance to Leghorns, 

Wp 1 WJ F Vf ^ 3ut nave longer, deep- 

^PBr -^Hr er an( i heavier bodies. 

1 1 The weight of a full- 

grown male should be 
eight pounds, and that 
black minorcas. of a female six and 

one-half pounds, which is fully a pound heavier than 
Leghorns commonly reach. 

Minorca hens are famous for producing large 
numbers of eggs, and when they have attained the 
age of two years and over the size of their eggs is 
quite remarkable. 




BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 87 

The White-Faced Black 
Spanish are a distinguished 
looking fowl, and may appro- 
priately be classed with the 
Light Brahma as belonging 
to the aristocracy of the 
poultry yard. While having 
the general characteristics of 
the class, their white face, 
black, silky-glossed plumage, 
a body of peculiar shape set 
well up on long, slender legs 
gives them an appearance 

., ... ,. , - ,, ... WHITE-FACED BLACK 

quite distinct from all others. Spanish. 

They lay a large, creamy white egg. Andalusians 
might be called Blue Leghorns. They are a beautiful 
fowl, but for some reason are not largely bred. 

The fourth-class is the English breed, the Dork- 
ings, of which there are three varieties — White, Silver- 
Gray and Colored. Colored Plate XI is a good 
representation of the Silver-Grays. The Dorkings 
have a characteristic shape that is well shown in the 
cut. The body is long, deep and full, neck and legs 
short and the whole appearance solid and substantial. 
The standard weight of mature males of the Silver- 
Gray variety is eight pounds, and of mature females 
six and one-half pounds. Colored Dorkings should 
weigh a pound heavier. These all have white flesh. 
They are good layers, but are especially prized 
for their market and table qualities. The Orping- 
tons, several varieties classed according to color of 
plumage, have of late years been imported from 



88 biggie: poui/try book. 

England. They are good layers and good table 
fowls, and in size compare favorably with our Ply- 
mouth Rocks. Red caps are also included in this class. 
A fifth class is the Polish, which embraces eight 
varieties, namely — ■ White-Crested Black, Golden, 
Silver, White, Bearded Golden, Bearded Silver, 
Bearded White and Buff-Laced. The Silver Polish, 

and the general ap- 
pearance of the breed, 
are seen in colored 
Plate IX. Both fowls 
and eggs of this breed 
are rather small and 
are mostly bred for 
fancy purposes. They 
are prolific producers 
of rather small eggs, 
white-crested black polish, and very pretty. 

The sixth class is known as the Dutch, which 
includes six varieties of Hamburgs — Golden Spangled, 
Silver Spangled, Golden Penciled, Silver Penciled, 
White and Black. The Golden Penciled Hamburgs 
are shown in colored plate IX. Hamburgs, like the 
Leghorns, are celebrated as egg producers, but their 
eggs are small, — like the fowls. They have been 
used with larger fowls, to increase their laying quality. 
The seventh class embraces the French breeds; 
Houdans, Crevecoeurs and La Fleche. The Houdans 
are shown in colored Plate X. They are distin- 
guished by a large crest, V-shaped combs and plumage 
of mottled black and white, the black predominating. 
A full-grown male should weigh seven pounds, and a 




BREADS OF CHICKENS. 89 

female six pounds. Houdans are good layers, have 
compact, well-proportioned bodies, and are superior 
table and market fowls. The flesh of all the French 
breeds is white, the bones are small and the meat 
juicy. Like the Dorkings, they have five toes on each 
foot. The Crevecoeurs and La Fleche have black 
plumage and are larger than the Houdans. For some 
reason they have not become popular in this country 
and are not so well known as the latter. 

The eighth class comprises — Games and Game 
Bantams, of each of which there are eight varieties. 
The typical Game shape is well exhibited in the Black- 
Breasted Red Game Bantam in colored Plate XIII. 
They all have single, erect combs and wattles, but it 
is the fashion to cut these appendages off. It is this 
operation, called "dubbing," that produces their 
fierce and war-like appearance. Contrary to a com- 
mon impression the varieties of Games named in the 
"Standard" are seldom ever bred for fighting, but 
almost wholly for exhibition or practical purposes. 
Being a hardy race and having a good muscular 
development about the 
breast, ;they are used with 
good effect to cross on com- 
mon stock, or on other 
pure - bred flocks. Game 
hens make the best of 
mothers, and are very cour- 
ageous in defending their 
broods. 

The ninth class includes 
Oriental Games and Bantams white coch/n bantams. 




9 o 



BlGGIvE POULTRY BOOK. 



which also contains Cornish, Indian and White 
Indian Games ; Black Sumatras, Black-Breasted Red 
Malays, and Bantams of the last named. 

The Cornish Indian Games were some years ago 
introduced into this country from England, and while 
they at the time gave promise of becoming a popular 
market fowl, they for some reason or other, are not 
much bred here at the present day. Their weight is : 
cock, nine pounds ; hen, six and a half pounds. See 
Plate XII. 

The tenth class comprises Ornamental Bantams, 
other than Games. The breeds and varieties are 
numerous, but I illustrate only a few popular favorites 
in colored Plate XIII. 




SILVER-LACED WYANDOTTES. 



Bantams are bred mostly as pets for children, but 
are often profitably kept on city yards and village 
lots for their eggs and meat. For this service the 
Seabrights are an old and popular breed. For show 



BREEDS OE CHICKENS 9 1 

purposes Bantams are bred down as small as possible, 
matured male specimens weighing only twenty-six to 
thirty ounces, and even less. 



The well-fed pullet is an early layer. 

The swill barrel. may become a chicken trap unless provided 
<with a lid. 

The wagon house makes a poor hennery. The cow shed and 
sheep pen are little better. 

To break up a broody hen, shut her in the coop the first night 
you find her on the nest. The longer she sits the more ' ' set ''in 
her way? she becomes. 

Chain the dog in the poultry yard at night. Prowlers will 
catch his scent and keep away. 

Darkened nests will do much toward preventing the egg-- 
eatmg habit. Use plenty of China nest-eggs. Eet a few lie on 
the floor. 

A good scarecrow, scarehawk and scarecat is a good gun in 
the hands of a good marksman. 

Set the fodder cutter and crusher to cut fine, and run an arm- 
ful of cornstalks through it. Scatter a bushel basketful every 
day on the floor of the poultry house. 

Take the crabbed rooster out of the breeding pen. 
Work is the main factor in successful poultry raising. 
Kindness will work wonders among the fowls. Treat them 
kindly in all ways and they will appreciate it. 

Utility is the science and beauty the art of poultry keeping. 

Study your subject and throw your heart in your work, and 
success will attend you. 

No need of fixing up some excuse for your neglect of work. 
Better not neglect it and have no need of excuses. 

Many a success in life has been traced to a right beginning. 
Many a failure was caused by a wrong start. 

The poultry business is not adapted to sluggards. 

Side-track care means a switched-off profit with poultrj-. 

Poultry culture is made up of a chain of little things, one 
link out of place makes a bad kink in the whole chain. 

Poultry keeping is not a get-rich-quick business. It is real 
business, requiring careful attention and patience that can wait 
for results. 

More than one-half the failures that occur among those who 
undertake the poultry business are brought about from the 
want of a definite aim at the outset, 



9 2 



BIGGI,E POULTRY BOOK. 



Be equal to all emergencies. 

Note the cause of your failures, then follow it up with 
success. 

Don't become disheartened if everything don't come your 
way — try again. 

Unless careful attention can be given the work, poultry 
culture should not be engaged in. 

A kind-hearted person will look after the welfare of his 
flocks. 

Failures are not without cause. There is a reason for all 
things. 

"Make haste slowly" — rushing pell-mell into the work will 
avail nothing. 







GOOD MORNING ! 




Chapter XII. 
TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 

Plow up your dogs and plant turkeys. — Joaquin Miller. 

This noble bird, next to the chicken 
in importance among the denizens of the 
poultry yard, is a native of North America, 
and is found in a wild state from Mexico 
to Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. 
It is supposed that the wild turkey of 
Mexico is the parent stock from which 
our domesticated bird is derived. 

Years ago the farm-yard flock was a somewhat 
variegated lot, but by skilful mating modern breeders 
have fixed certain characteristics of color and size so 
that we now have six quite distinct varieties, recog= 
uized and described in the "Standard of Perfection." 
The names of these, with the standard weight of adult 
birds, male and female, are the Bronze, thirty-six and 
twenty pounds ; Narragansett, thirty and eighteen 
pounds ; Buff, twenty-seven and eighteen pounds ; 
Slate, twent}^-seven and eighteen pounds ; White, 
twenty-six and sixteen pounds ; Black, twenty-seven 
and eighteen pounds. 

The weights above named are only reached, as a 
rule, by birds that are two years old or over. Some- 
times they are exceeded even by younger specimens. 
In 1866, a Connecticut woman sent to President John- 
son a gobbler, not quite two years old, that tipped the 
beam at forty-seven pounds. 



BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 



Of the six varieties the Bronze, illustrated in Plate 
XIV, is the latest introduction. This originated by- 
crossing the common with the Northern wild turkey. 
In plumage the Bronze resembles closely its wild 
parent, but the color is more brilliant. The lustre is 
like burnished gold in the sunlight, and it is almost 
an impossibility to properly reproduce it on paper or 
canvas. 




WHITE HOLLAND TURKEYS. 

The prevailing color of the Narragansett is a 
mixture of black and white, over which, in the sun- 
light, is seen a beautiful greenish-bronze lustre. The 
plumage of the Slate turkey is a grayish-blue. The 
White, or White Holland, is pure white, except the 



TURKKYS AND GUINEA-FOWI£. 97 

beard of the male, which is deep black. The red 
wattles, black tuft on the breast and the snow-white 
plumage of the rest of the bird make a striking con- 
trast. A photograph from life of a pair of these birds 
is given on the opposite page. 

The breeding of turkeys is more difficult than the 
breeding of chickens, because of the difference in the 
nature and habits of the birds. The turkey is not as 
thoroughly domesticated as the chicken, having been 
under the controlling influence of man but a com- 
paratively short time and still retaining many of its 
wild traits. Their love of freedom, their roving habits 
and their shyness all indicate their recent introduc- 
tion from the forest to the domestic state. 

Young turkeys or poults, as they are called, are 
generally regarded as very tender until they reach 
the age of ten or twelve weeks. This is partly due to 
the unwise treatment of the breeding stock during 
the winter and early spring. 

In the domestic state, turkeys pass the winter 
months in comparative inactivity. During this time 
they are fed principally on corn. When the breeding 
season arrives they are in prime condition for the 
table — fat and glossy, but are lacking in the vigor so 
essential for producing strong and healthy progeny. 
To this state of things may be attributed much of the 
weakness supposed to belong to them by nature. 

As soon as the surplus stock has all been sent to 
market, the birds intended for breeding should be fed 
less corn and more muscle and bone-making food. 
One-third of their grain ration should consist of oats, 
and one-third of wheat, and the other third of corn, 




98 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

or corn and buckwheat. They are fond of cabbage, 
apples or any raw vegetables, and breeding stock 
should be well supplied with food of this kind. As 
the laying season approaches they should have nitrog- 
enous food in the form of ground raw meat and 
bone or meat-meal, the former fed alone and the latter 
mixed in a mash of bran and corn meal. 

When chickens and turkeys run together and are 
fed together the former will get at least two grains 
to the latter's one. For this reason, for fattening 
turkeys as well as for breeding stock, it is advisable 
to have troughs so made that the turkeys can feed at 
pleasure without interference 
from chickens. The illustration 
represents a cheap and handy 
turkey trough. feeder. It is made of six-inch 
fence slats nailed together for a trough and elevated 
to such a height that the other poultry cannot reach it. 
The end pieces and the lid are made of a foot-wide 
board, the lid being four or five inches above the trough. 
Slats at the bottom of end pieces give it stability. 

For breeders it is best to select hens two or three 
years old. If hens of the previous year are used they 
should be from the early broods. An early-hatched 
yearling male should be mated with old hens. When 
yearling hens are selected it is better to mate them 
with a two-year old gobbler. Young and undersized 
birds should in no case be used. Large, heavy toms 
should never be mated with small hens. One male is 
sufficient for five to ten females. 

The turkey hen begins to lay in March or April, 
according to season and latitude. Her marked traits 



TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 99 

at this time are great shyness and secretiveness. She 
will seldom deposit her eggs in houses or nests where 
hens lay, but will choose rather a secluded fence 
corner or a bush, or bunch of weeds, or briars at 
some distance from the premises. 

Before the laying season begins the poultry keeper 
should provide the hens with suitable nests not far 
from the buildings. This may be done by setting a 
few boards or an old door against a fence corner and 
throwing a bunch of hay under it, or by laying barrels 
or boxes on the ground in some secluded spot and 
putting a little hay in them. By a little strategy they 
may be induced to locate near by, and thus save the 
keeper much labor in looking after them and their 
broods. 

As fast as the eggs are laid they should be removed 
from the nest, placed in a basket or box lined with 
woolen, and turned every two days. A nest-egg should 
always be left in the nest. By removing the eggs in 
this manner the hens will not become broody so soon 
and will lay a greater number. When the hens 
become broody, if there are more eggs than they can 
cover, set the rest at the same time under chicken 
hens, and when they hatch, which will be in thirty or 
thirty-one days, put all the poults with the turkey 
hens to brood and rear. 

When the hens are tame and can be handled the 
young birds may be removed from the nest to the 
house, as they are hatched, until the whole brood is 
out, and then returned the night before the brood is 
put into the coop. 

During the period of incubation the hen will 




IOO BIGGLK POULTRY BOOK. 

require nothing but corn and water and freedom from 
molestation. While the young are hatching feed and 
drink should be placed before her on the nest. 

The poults require nothing to eat for twenty-four 
hours, and need not be fed until placed in the coop. 
A familiar sight wherever turkeys are reared is 
the coop and yard made of foot-wide boards, here 
shown. For the first three days the mother should 
be kept in the coop, but after this may have her 
liberty. She will not go far away 
while her flock is confined. The 
pen should be located on well- 
drained ground, where there is 
short and tender grass. In the absence of grass in 
the runs finely chopped onions, lettuce or other 
vegetables should be supplied. 

The diet of poults need not differ greatly from 
that of chicks. Hard-boiled eggs, so generally pre- 
scribed, may be safely left out of their bill of fare. 
Dry bread soaked in sweet milk is good for the first 
week. This may be given three times a day, and a 
little oat meal, finely cracked wheat or corn be kept 
where they can peck at it when so inclined. Ten 
young turkeys are killed by kindess in overfeeding 
for every one injured by starvation. It is not neces- 
sary to feed every two hours, as it is sometimes 
enjoined. It is more in accordance with nature to 
furnish them with food in such a manner that they 
cannot gorge themselves quickly, but will be com- 
pelled to peck a little at a time and often. Wet and 
sloppy food and fermented messes should be scrupu- 
lously avoided. Cottage cheese, made by scalding 



TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWXS. IOI 

clabbered milk and pressing out the whey, makes a 
wholesome side-dish, and so does a custard of egg 
and milk mixed with bran and corn meal. Grit and 
water should be supplied from the beginning, as both 
are essential to health. 

When the poults are able to nop out of their board 
pen they are strong enough to follow their mother. 
But as dampness is particularly injurious until they 
are ten or twelve weeks old, they should not be let out 
of the coop in the morning until the dew is off the 
grass, and it is always well to get them under shelter 
when a shower comes. Eternal vigilance is the price 
of sound and healthy turkeys at this early stage of their 
existence. If overtaken in a storm it is sometimes nec- 
essary to bring the little fellows in the house and dry 
them by the fire. As soon as they feather out and 
" shoot the red," as it is said when the red appears in 
their faces, they take on new vitality and can stand 
more hardships than chicks. 

After this time they may be allowed to forage at 
pleasure. With a suitable range they will be able to 
gather in the fields and woods the greater part of their 
living. It is always prudent, however, to feed them 
twice a day, supplying them a light meal in the morn- 
ing early and giving them all they will eat when they 
return at night. By taking care to feed them regu- 
larly in this manner they may be trained to come 
home every evening instead of perching on the 
fences out in the fields, or in the woods. But as 
" turkeys will be turkeys " now and then, and remain 
away from the premises, they should be hunted up 
the very first time their absence is noticed and driven 
home and fed. 



102 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

If located near neighbors who also have flocks, 
the yonng poults should be marked with marking 
punches in the web of the foot. If the neighbors 
will agree to have different marks it will be an easy 
matter, if the birds get together, for each one to pick 
out his own. 

In the fall when the harvest fields are gleaned, 
the grasshopper crop gathered in and insects 
become scarce, the birds are well-grown and lusty. 
The corn fields are now their favorite haunts and they 
are inclined to linger longer around 
the farm yard, and are eager for 
anything in the way of eatables their 
owner has to offer. 

Thanksgiving comes along about 
fet. this time and the first installment of 
/'* " the flock should be prepared for 

B market and one of the best of the 
lot reserved for the farmer's own 
fc ; i wBbF ta bl e - The illustration represents 
gPF one of the flock the day after Thanks- 
giving. He is laughing all over his 
face now ; perhaps Christmas day he 
- -J~- jawill wear a different expression. 

GUINEA -FOWLS. 

The Guinea is closely related to the turkey and 
was originally brought from Guinea, on the West 
African coast, where it is still found in a wild state. 

Their peculiar cry when alarmed will scare hawks 
and crows in the day-time. At night they are light 
sleepers and when aroused by thieves or other marau- 




GUINEA- FOWI^S. 



103 



ders their noise will arouse the neighborhood. They 
are great rovers and foragers, destroying many insects 
and weed seed, but doing little damage to crops. For 
making a gamey pot-pie no other domestic fowl equals 
the guinea. They lay many small but rich eggs and 
have a habit of secreting their nests in the fields and 
along fences, seldom ever laying near the farm build- 
ings. In the hennery they are pugnacious and abusive 
toward other fowls, and their unceasing chatter is 
annoying to some people. Their good traits over- 
balance their bad ones and a few should be in every 
farm-yard. 

;; One male is sufficient for a flock of six to ten 
females. It is well to set the eggs under a chicken 
hen. Reared in this way they are more domestic. 
They will follow the mother-hen, to her great annoy- 




A FLOCK OF PEARL GUINEAS. 

ance, until they are full-grown. The young are quite 
hardy and require no special treatment or care differ- 
ent from chickens or turkeys. The plumage of 
the Pearl Guinea, the most common variety, is a 
groundwork of blue sprinkled with pearl dots of 



104 BIGGLK POUI/fRY BOOK. 

white. The males usually have some white on their 
breasts, have larger wattles and larger bodies than 
the females. The Whites differ only in color, and 
are probably a sport of the Pearl. 



THE PKA-FOWL. 

The most gorgeous in plumage of all our domestic 
birds is a native of Southern Asia and the Malay 
Archipelago. They are kept for ornamental purposes 
only, being of no practical value. One pair is enough 
for a whole neighborhood, as by their shrill cry at 
night they can awaken everybody within a radius of 
half a mile. The mother-hen usually steals her nest 
and brings up her brood without any assistance. 





Chapter XIII. 
DUCKS. 

Ducks and rats do not thrive in the same house. — Tim's wife. 
A duck's appetite is as big as the feed bin. — Tim. 

The domestic duck is believed 
to be a descendant of the Wild 
Mallard, the most common and 
numerous of the wild species. 
Ten varieties are recognized in 
the " Standard of Perfection " — 
the Pekin, Aylesbury, Rouen, 
Cayuga, Call, Bast India, White 
Crested, Muscovy, Indian Runner and Blue Swedish. 
Rouens are regarded as a French breed and 
appear to be the Mallard domesticated and enlarged 
by selection and breeding. The pair seen in the fore- 
ground in colored Plate XV, fairly represent the 
shape and beautiful plumage in which this variety 
is clothed. The standard weights of adult birds, male 
and female, are nine and eight pounds respectively. 
They are hardy and are prolific layers of large green- 
ish eggs. 

The Cayuga is an American variety, jet-black in 
plumage, supposed to have originated near Lake 
Cayuga, New York, from a cross of Mallard and the 
Wild Black, or Buenos Ayres duck. The standard 
weights for these are eight and seven pounds respec- 
tively. 

The Aylesbury is the favorite English variety. 



ioS 



BIGGLK POUI/TRY BOOK. 



The plumage is a pure " dead- white " throughout, the 
beak a pale flesh -color, and the shanks a light orange. 
The standard weight is the same as for Rouens. 

The Muscovy belongs to a different genus from 
the varieties already described, and is a descendant of 




A LONG ISLAND DUCK FARM. 

the wild Musk Duck of South America. There are 
two varieties, the colored and the white. The latter 
is shown in the background in colored Plate XV, 
which well illustrates the peculiar shape and appear- 
ance of this duck, which differ decidedly from that of 



DUCKS. IO9 

the common varieties. They will breed with other 
ducks, but the hybrids are mules, or sterile. While kept 
mostly as curiosities, or for ornamental purposes, the 
crosses are said to make excellent market poultry. 

The Pekin is an Asiatic variety having been first 
imported from Pekin, China, in 1873. The plumage 
is white with a creamy-yellow shading, the feathers 
being downy and fluffy like Asiatic chickens. While 
the "Standard" gives their weights as a pound lighter 
than Rouens or Aylesburys, they are commonly 
regarded as a larger duck than either. 

The introduction of the Pekins to this country 
gave a new impetus to duck breeding, and many 
persons have entered into it on an extensive scale. 
While they are prolific layers of large eggs, mostly 
white-shelled, they are also the great market duck. 
Their bills and shanks are a deep orange-yellow and 
their skin also is yellow. As the plumage is white 
and the pinfeathers leave no stain on the flesh, they 
make the finest dressed carcass of any variety. 

The keeping of ducks for eggs is a profitable part 
of the duck business, when rightly conducted, and 
the keeper is within easy access to a city market. 
During the early spring months duck eggs bring 
higher prices than hen eggs, and it is at this season 
that ducks are most prolific. To obtain the best 
results from eggs the laying ducks should be hatched 
the latter part of the breeding season, in June and 
July. The spring-hatched will grow larger and will 
make better breeding stock, but with proper care 
these late broods will lay as soon as the severity of 
winter is over, as soon, in fact, as the early-hatched, 



110 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

and will not require to be fed during March, April and 
May. The proper feed for such ducks, to induce early 
and prolific laying, is well illustrated by the practice 
of a successful breeder who commonly winters about 
five hundred. He feeds them on equal parts of boiled 
turnips, wheat, bran, and corn meal, with a little — say 
ten per cent. — of ground beef scraps thrown in. This 
is mixed thoroughly together while the turnips are hot, 
and constitute the entire feed during the winter and 
spring. About the first of January or a little later, 
when they begin to lay, the proportion of bran and 
meat scraps should be increased. 

This mess is fed morning and evening, and at 
noon they have a light meal of dry food composed of 
equal parts of cracked corn, oats and wheat. 

Ducks kept expressly for market eggs require no 
drakes with them, which is one of the points in favor 
of this part of the business. As soon as the price 
drops and the egg supply begins to run low the layers 
should be sent to market. 

When large numbers are kept, either for laying 
or breeding, large houses properly constructed are 
required. The character of these houses will be deter- 
mined by the climate and other circumstances. Where 
the winters are mild and snow seldom tarries long on 
the ground long open sheds will suffice; but where the 
winters are long and severe and snow lingers, large, 
storm-proof houses are needed. While ducks are 
hardy and can endure more cold and wet weather than 
chickens, when early laying is the object sought the 
layers must be shielded from the severity of the 
weather. James Rankin, in his excellent treatise on 



DUCKS. Ill 

Duck Culture, described the house in which he keeps 
his breeding ducks through the winter as covering 
fifteen by two hundred feet floor space, having five-foot 
posts in the rear and four-foot posts in front, and an 
uneven double roof, the short slant being in the rear. 
There is a walk through the rear, three and one-half 
feet wide. The building is divided every twenty-four 
feet into pens, in each of which forty ducks are 
wintered. The partitions are but two feet high. The 
walk is separated from the pens by lath three inches 
apart, to allow the birds to feed and drink from 
troughs placed in the walk. This arrangement enables 



ONE OF JAMES RANKIN'S DUCK HOUSES. 

an attendant to feed and water the whole houseful in 
a few minutes, a wheelbarrow or truck being used for 
carrying supplies ; it also prevents waste of feed or 
fouling of the feed or water. Only ten feet of this 
slat partition along the walk in each pen is used for 
feed, and four feet is made movable so that the attend- 
ant can enter with barrow to clean out the pens. The 
other ten feet along the walk is lined with the nests, 
which are fifteen inches square, the back and division 
boards being a foot high and the board next to the 
pen but four inches, or just high enough to keep the 
nest material in. This latter consists of cut straw or 
hay, which is kept dry and clean, thus preventing the 
eggs from becoming soiled and stained. With such a 



112 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

house there should be either joined or situated near- 
by a feed and cook-room containing bins, a root-cutter 
and a capacious boiler. The front of the building is 
one-third glass. From the front the yards extend one 
hundred feet, making each one twenty-four by one 
hundred feet. Experience has proved that free range 
and water are not essential to success in keeping 
ducks, especially Pekin ducks, for laying or breeding. 

Ducks as a part of the farm poultry should be 
kept apart, as much as possible, from the chickens, 
and away from the barnyard and farm-yard and out 
of sight of the dooryard. With the chickens they 
foul the drinking water and the food and their feathers 
become soiled in the hen-house. In the barnyard 
they are liable to be trampled by the stock, and they 
are too filthy to be tolerated in the farm sheds, or 
on the grass of the lawn. They should have houses, 
shelters and yards of their own in all cases. These 
need not be expensive. The houses may be low, and 
no fence for Pekin ducks need be over two feet high. 

An excellent shelter for a farm flock is a shed, 
one-half of which is open and the other half closed. 
The open half should have a movable slat fence or 
gate for use when it is desirable to confine the flock. 
If they have free range it is necessary to confine them 
to a house or yard for two or three hours after daylight 
during the laying season, otherwise they will drop 
their eggs in the fields and meadows, or along the 
streams, and many will be lost. 

A convenient form of duck-house is here shown. 
As ducks are humble-minded creatures tney do not 
require a lofty building, and therefore one for their 




DUCKS. 113 

accommodation may consist principally of roof. It 
is a movable house six by ten feet, set on plank run- 
ners fifteen inches wide. This structure, set on a well- 
drained site, bedded with short hay or straw and 
moved occasionally, will serve as headquarters for a 
flock of ten to twenty-five. 

Breeding ducks should be carefully selected for 
their size and typical shape, and only mature birds 
should be used. An active yearling drake may be 
allowed for each five or six ducks. 
As the drakes are not so pugna- 
cious as cocks, flocks may contain 
several of them without danger of 
their injuring one another. 

As a general thing it is better to hatch duck eggs 
under b_-ns than under ducks. The period of incuba- 
tion for duck eggs is twenty-eight days, and the 
temperature required is the same as for hen eggs. 
They have strong vitality and are easy to hatch either 
in the natural way or artificially. 

Ducklings when hatched are animated balls of 
down, seldom quiet and never so happy as when eat- 
ing or dabbling in water. They do not require so 
much warmth from the mother and do not need to 
be hovered so much as chicks. Hence, it is safe to 
put thirty to forty with a single hen. IN [ore also can 
be put in a single flock in a brooder than of chicks. 

While ducklings will take to the water as soon as 
hatched, they do better if not allowed to swim until 
they are four weeks old, and should not be allowed to 
enter ponds or streams until they have their first 
feathers. Thousands of ducklings die yearly from 



U4 



BIGGU5 POULTRY BOOK. 



cramps and convulsions, because they are allowed to 
enter the water too young or too early in the season 
while the water is cold. Cold spring water even in 
summer is fatal to them. 

For the first ten days ducklings, with hens, do best 
in small yards, like those described for confining young 
turkeys. The coop should have a board bottom, to 
prevent the hen mother from scratching earth over 
her downy brood. All the water they need is enough 
to drink and to dip their heads into, to wash out their 
nostrils and eyes. It is difficult for a duck to eat 

without the fre- 
quent use of 
water. A duck- 
ling will drink 
about one hun- 
dred times, more 
or less, while 
eating a single 
meal. The water 
an unnatural family. vessels, there- 

fore, should be close to the feeding trough, but so 
arranged that they cannot get in them with their feet 
or dip their heads in deep enough to throw water over 
their backs. 

Healthy ducklings have a voracious appetite and 
will eat whatever is set before them. Dry bread soaked 
in milk is excellent food for the first two days. In 
passing it may be said that it is not advisable to give 
ducklings milk to drink ; it should always be used for 
mixing their feed. They will get it on their down 
and in their eyes, and thus not only spoil their good 




DUCKS. 115 

looks but injure their health. After the first few 
meals of bread and milk, equal parts of corn meal 
and wheat bran, wet with milk or water, may be fed. 
A little fine-ground meat scraps, or meat-meal, should 
be added. After ten days every other meal may con- 
sist of cracked corn and wheat. Care should be taken 
to have all their food crumbly rather than doughy or 
sticky. At first they should be fed every two hours, 
but at the end of a week they can get along with four 
meals a day. Like all other birds they need grit as 
soon as hatched. To supply this at first it is a good 
plan to sprinkle a little coarse sand on the feeding 
board or in their feeding trough. When a little older 
put the grit in the bottom of the drinking vessel. 

The yard in which the ducklings are placed should 
contain short grass, but if it does not, green food in 
some form must be supplied regularly and bountifully. 
Lettuce, beet tops, cabbage, green clover, or green 
corn cut fine, will be greedily devoured. 

While they are hearty eaters they are, for this 
reason, rapid growers and will increase in weight 
about twice as fast as chickens. They are usually 
slaughtered when from seven to ten weeks old. 

In warm weather it is important to have some 
shelters for ducks and diicklings confined in yards. If 
the latter contain no trees, vines or bushes, temporary 
shelter of boards, brush or canvas must be provided. 

Temporary yards may be made for ducklings by 
the use of wire netting two feet w T ide, stapled loosely 
to stakes driven into the ground. Such a fence is 
easily moved by pulling up the stakes with the wire 
on them and rolling all up together. 



Il6 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

The Swan (Cygnus), first cousin of the duck and 
the goose, is frequently referred to as the type of grace- 
ful beauty in outline and motion. There are numer- 
ous varieties, nearly all of them found in a wild state. 
Formerly the bird was served at feasts on special 
occasions, but it is now kept in private and public 
parks solely for ornamental purposes. 



DUCK NOTES. 

Quack ! Quack ! ! Quack ! ! ! 

Harvest-hatched ducks make good spring layers. 

Ducklings will kill ilose-bugs, and rose-bugs in large doses 
will kill ducklings. / 

Ducks being water-fowl are warm-blooded and like water, 
but appreciate a dry floor to roost on. Having a water-tight 
roof the floor can be kept in proper order with cut straw or 
leaves and dry earth. The litter should be short. ( 

The sex of ducks can easily be distinguished by the quack. 
The voice of the male is pitched in a high key and that of the 
female iu a low key ; the male has a larger head and thicker 
neck and when in full feather one of the tail feathers is curled 
backward. 

White clover sod does not make a good pasture for duck- 
lings. Bees like white clover as well as ducklings, and conse- 
quently the three get badly mixed up. The bee stings as he 
goes down the duckling's throat on a clover head, and the career 
of the bee and duckling both come to a sudden termination. 



SINGLE FILE. 



Chapter XIV. 

€ — 

GEESE. 

It is a silly goose that comes to afox^s sermon. 
The goose that has a good gander cackles loudly. 

—Danish Proverb. 

In some places on the European continent goose 
culture is quite an industry with the peasants, who 
fatten them in large numbers, making it profitable. 
Farmers who have rough, marshy land may, with a 
little extra expense and labor, add to their incomes by 
stocking it with geese. 

Our domestic goose has descended, it is said, from 
the wild greylag goose of Northern Europe. The 
common gray and white geese of the American farm- 
yard need no description, since they are well known 
everywhere. The Toulouse, a large, gray variety, has 
come to us by way of England. Their shape and color 
are seen in the foreground of colored Plate XVI. The 
difference of the sexes may be plainly seen by observ- 
ing the head and neck of each bird. The gander has 
a larger head and thicker neck than the goose. But 
it will be noted that the abdomen of the latter is 
heavier and closer to the ground. The standard 
weight for adult Toulouse is forty pounds per pair. 
They sometimes attain greater weights than this, but 
not until three or more years of age. 

There is a large, white, pure-bred variety called the 
Embden or Bremen, so named from two towns in 
Hanover, in northeastern Germany, where they are 



120 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

supposed to have originated. The Embden has pure 
white plumage, prominent blue eyes, a flesh-colored 
bill and bright orange legs. The weight is about the 
same as that of the Toulouse. 

Chinese geese, or swan geese, belong to another 
Species, and are at once recognized by a peculiar 
knob or protuberance at the base of their bills and 
by their long, swan-like necks. There are two varie- 
ties, the White and the Brown. The latter is shown 
in the background of colored Plate XVI. The stand- 
ard weight of these is twenty-eight pounds per pair. 
African Geese, recognized in the "Standard," belong 
to the same species and are similar to the Brown 
China, but heavier. 

The American wild, or Canada goose, belongs to 
a different species from either of the above, and will 
not produce a fertile cross. It has never become 
thoroughly domesticated and does not breed readily 
in confinement. 

Geese are long-lived, and the females may be 
kept for eight or ten years, but the ganders become 
pugnacious and less virile after they are three years 
old. It is best, therefore, to mate old geese with 
young ganders, allowing one male to two or three 
females. The geese agree better if selected from the 
same flock. To avoid in-breeding, select the male 
from a different flock. Geese incline to go in families 
and are very jealous of their mates. For this reason, 
when there is more than one flock or family, it is 
prudent to have separate sheds for each one, and if 
possible, separate runs. 

In northern latitudes it is not well to feed breed- 



GEESE. 121 

ing geese too generously in the winter and start them 
to laying early. Goslings and green grass should 
appear about the same time. But conditions being 
right, the earlier goslings hatch the better. About 
the first of February in the Middle States the forcing 
may begin, the breeders being fed in a manner 
similar to that recommended for breeding ducks. 
During the winter cut hay, ensilage and a little corn 
with refuse vegetables will sustain them, but now 
they should have nitrogenous food, like bran, shorts 
and meat scraps fed with cooked vegetables. 

The goose will lay two litters of twelve to fifteen 
eggs each. If well fed this number may be increased. 
The China goose is said to sometimes lay from fifty 
to sixty in a season. To get the eggs all hatched as 
soon as possible the first laid may be hatched under 
hens, allowing each hen to incubate from five to 
seven eggs. When the goose has finished her first 
laying and becomes broody she may be confined for a 
few days and be well fed. When her brooding fever 
is over she will lay again and may be permitted to 
hatch and take care of the second litter. 

The period of incubation is the same as that of 
ducks, twenty-eight to thirty days. 

Goslings are hardy, but should, like ducklings, be 
kept in a pen for two or three weeks and allowed 
only water enough to drink. Since goslings are 
regarded as a great delicacy by snapping turtles, 
minks and other varmints, it is well to keep them 
from infested ponds and guarded at night in sheds 
enclosed with netting. The later hatches, left to run 
with the mother-goose, will require less attention and 



122 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

care, but yet it is advisable to confine the flock in a 
yard for a week or ten days. 

When the goslings are to be sold in the Christmas 
markets, or late in the year for breeders, they will 
not need to be supplied with food if they have suit- 
able pasture grounds, except a light meal of grain 
morning and night. It is best to feed them in this 
manner to induce them to return home every night. 

There is a demand for "green goose" in mid- 
summer and many prepare their early goslings for 
this market. With this end in view they are fed all 




EMBDEN GEESE. 

they will eat until the flight-feathers grow out as far 
as the root of the tail, then they are enclosed in a pen. 
This must be in a dry situation where there is no 
water or mud. A yard fifty feet square with shade in 
it will hold seventy-five goslings. Treat them gently, 
since they are timid creatures and will not fatten if 
roughly hand] ed or frightened. Have a large boiler 
holding a barrel or more, fill with water and stir in 



GEESE. 123 

the boiling water, meal and twenty-five pounds of 
meat scraps to the barrel. Mix till as thick as can be 
stirred. Season with a little salt. Feed all they will 
eat of this and give only enough water to drink. 
Furnish gravel and put in the enclosure some rotten 
wood. In seventeen to twenty days they will be 
ready to slaughter. They should be in market before 
the fourth of July. 

One source of profit from geese is the feathers, 
which are always in demand at good prices. These 
are obtained not only from the slaughtered birds but 
also from the live ones. When done with discretion the 
practice of plucking is not so cruel as it might at first 
sight appear. Four times a year is often enough to per- 
form this operation. Never pick when laying, nor in 
cold weather, and pick only when the feathers are 
" ripe." This ripeness is detected by the experienced 
eye by the dull, dead color of the plumage, and in 
Pekin ducks by the absence of the yellowish tinge. To 
test them pluck a few from the breast. If they come 
easy and are dry at the quill end they are "ripe," if the 
least bit moist or bloody do not pick any more. In 
picking, take only a small pinch of feathers in the 
fingers at a time, and make a quick downward jerk 
from tail to neck. Remove only a little of the down. 
Never remove from a live bird the cushion or bolster 
of coarse feathers along the side, that supports the wing. 

The goslings may be picked as soon as they are 
full feathered. An experienced geese breeder thus 
describes his plan of making the most out of the 
feather crop : I like my geese to hatch out about the 
last of April. At that time I pick the ganders of the 



124 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

flock, the geese having lined their nest with feathers 
they are not in condition to be plucked. About the 
first of June the ganders are full feathered again and 
the geese are ready too, as you will begin to find loose 
feathers where they stay over night. Then in about 
seven weeks the goslings are ready to be plucked 
with the old ones. Don't take the feathers off too 
bare, as the sun is hot at this season. By the last of 
September you will get a fine lot of good feathers 
again. If you keep the geese for the holiday market 
they are again ready in early November, but if the 
nights are cold drive them up and give shelter. They 
will soon feather at this time of year, and at killing 
time you will get the finest crop of the year. 

Fasten them up in a stable having plenty of clean 
6traw under them for half a day before you begin to 
pluck the feathers, then they will be dry and clean. 
Take a narrow strip of muslin, tie their feet together, 
lay them on their backs, tuck their wings under 
them, let an assistant take hold of the head, and as 
soon as they are done struggling begin to pluck. 



There are no disease germs in fresh eggs. 

Poultry products sell for cash, and can be sold at any time. 
Two important points in favor of the hen business. 

In long houses, instead of an entry and tramway for carry- 
ing feed and water have an overhead track and suspend a plat- 
form car on which to carry buckets and boxes. Will be useful, 
also, in cleaning the house, carrying manure out and fresh 
gravel in. — Tim. 

The crops of fowls should be empty when sent to market. 
The best way to secure this condition is not to feed for at least 
twelve hours before killing. If for any reason the crop be full 
after killing, make a cut two inches long through the thick skin 
on back of the neck, insert the finger in the incision, draw out 
the crop and cut it off. The mutilation will not be apparent. 



Chapter XV. 



PIGEONS FOR MARKET. 



A bird in the loft is worth two in the pot-hunter'' s bag. 
In a neighborhood where pigeons fty both peas and peace 
take wing. — Tim. 

mT^ The old practice of fastening nest- 

H boxes on the outside of building and 

j^^W^ allowing the occupants to range at will is 

^ 4«t no t |- b e commended- However made 

they present an unsightly appearance, and pigeons at 

liberty in a community are an intolerable nuisance. 

It is better in every way to have a separate build- 
ing for pigeons, and to have an outside fly of wire 
netting connected with it and thus to keep the birds 
confined at all seasons. This plan is especially recom- 
mended when any considerable number is kept. 

The accompanying 
illustration shows a loft with 
the breeding-room eight b^ 
sixteen feet and a cage jr 
fly sixteen by sixteen feet 
that will accommodate twenty to forty pairs. In 
building it posts are set firmly in the ground, pans 
inverted over them to keep out rats and mice and 
the sills nailed to the posts. 

For larger numbers the house shown on the next 
page illustrates a cheap and practical building. It is 





128 BIGGIE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

eight by thirty-two feet, but may be made any length 

desired. The front is ten feet high and the rear six 

feet. The roof, rear and end wall should be wind and 

rain-proof, but it is well to 

have a considerable portion 

of the front open, especially 

in summer. Netting with <?*"" 

two-inch mesh will confine pigeons, but where the 

English sparrow abounds one-inch mesh is preferable. 

The floor of the loft may well be of earth, but should 

be dry. 

On most of the large squab farms in this country, 
the nests are constructed of rough yellow pine boards, 
twelve inches high, twelve inches deep, and twenty- 
four inches wide. No strip is nailed on the front of 
the nest, as it renders cleaning difficult. Instead of 
regular rows of nests of one pattern, some pigeon 
breeders prefer to use large soap-boxes, starch-boxes, 
irregular boxes, nail kegs or anything that will give 
individuality to the home of each pair. 

Figure I illustrates how a soap box may be trans- 
formed into a first-class home for a pair of breeders. 
A division board is placed in the mid- 
dle and alighting boards at either end. 
Figure 2 shows a smaller box contain- 
ing but a single nest, so made that no 
alighting board is needed and the roof 
sloped to prevent perching upon it. Two of e ^v^g fc, 
these will be needed for each pair and should ||t— ^\ 
be placed adjacent. Nail kegs may be sus- H V 

pended by wire to beams or rafters and have FlG - 2 - 
the open end a little higher than the other, or a piece 





PIGEONS FOR MARKET. T29 

of the head of the open end left in, to keep the eggs 
and squabs from tumbling out. 

The irregularity in shape and arrangement of 
nests may shock the fastidious, but will avoid conten- 
tion and confusion among the birds, which frequently 
results in the loss of eggs and squabs. 

For raising squabs for market it has 
been proved in late years that the com- 
mon pigeon does not give the uniform, 
plump, attractive carcass that the market 
demands, and which is credited to the 
pouter. Homer variety. Some advise crosses 
with Runt and Dragoon, but it is generally conceded 
among squab growers that the Homer in its purity 
gives all the requirements of a squab to meet the 
demands of the most fastidious. 

It is desirable to have breeders that raise squabs 
with light skin for they always bring the top price. 
The color of the skin is not controlled, as is popularly 
supposed, by the color of the feathers. Parents with 
white plumage may have dark squabs, and those as 
black as crows may produce squabs with fair skin. 

A good plan to stock a loft is to buy enough mated 
birds to fill it one-fourth full, and raise enough from 
these to make up the complement, selecting the young 
from the parents that prove to be prolific, 
and raise the largest and whitest squabs. 
As mated birds are not always obtain- 
able the next best plan is to buy squabs 
just able to fly. A good time to buy is 
in June, July and August, when squabs jacobin. 
are low in price. These birds will pass their moult 




I30 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

and begin to breed in the following winter and spring. 
Pigeons breed in pairs, and when once mated 
remain faithful to each other unless the union is 
broken by death or by the coquetry and intrigue of 
unmated birds. The latter are sure to make mischief 
and care should be taken to exclude them, or to 
remove them from the loft when discovered. It is 
always best to mate pigeons, that are not known to be 
already mated, pair by pair, before turning them into 
the loft. This may be done by placing the couple in 
a coop or cage alone for two or three days. The 
novice may attempt to mate two of the same sex. 
If both be males, the cooing and strutting and fight- 
ing will make the mistake evident. If both be 
females, there will be no love-making, but may be 
some quarreling. How to distinguish the sexes 
frequently puzzles experts. The experienced eye 
can generally detect the masculine or feminine 
features of a bird, and will name the sex nine times 
out of ten. There is no way to get this experience 
except by long and careful observation. The female 
is smaller, as a rule, than the male, and has a feminine 
look about the head and neck, the eyes being milder, 
the head narrower and the neck more slender than 
the corresponding parts of the cock. 
The hen lays two eggs and then 
both birds assist in hatching them. 
The hen sits all night and a part of 
the day : the cock sits the balance 
of the time. Both assist in feeding 
fantail. the squabs. If the hen lays again 

before the first brood are out of the nest the cock will 




PIGEONS FOR MARKET. 131 

usually take entire charge of the young besides doing 
his share of incubations. The two eggs will usually 
hatch one male and one female. 

The natural food of pigeons is grain and the 
seeds of grasses. They are fond of millet, clover 
seed and peas, and if allowed to fly when these 
crops are sown will prove very destructive. Hemp 
seed is to pigeons what candy is to children. A 
little may be given them on entering the loft to 
tame them. 

For a steady diet the following is commend ed : two 
parts whole corn, two parts wheat and one part buck- 
wheat, all to be old, sound grain. Screenings to be 
economical should be purchased for one-fifth the price 
of good wheat. New grain is not good for the squabs. 
The corn should be a variety having small grains 
and should in no case be cracked. 

In order to supply feed for the very young squabs 
it is well to keep equal parts of bran and corn meal 
in self-feeding hoopers always before the 
breeders. Experience has proved that 
the old ones feed with greater regularity 
and fatten their young better when the 
whole grain is supplied at regular hours, TUMT , LI 
three times a day, all they will eat up clean. They 
will not eat grain that is fouled, if they can avoid it, 
and should not be compelled to do so. 

For side dishes they should have ground oyster 
shell in a box or barrel lid where they can help them- 
selves, a lump of rock salt and a bit of salt codfish 
tacked to the side of the loft by several nails, so they 
can peck at it, but not tear it down. 





132 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

The floor of the loft should be kept reasonably 
clean and be strewn occasionally with fresh sand and 
gravel. Red gravel is the best, as it contains iron, 
the oxide of iron giving it its peculiar color. Pigeons 
will peck at clay and coal ashes, and also at weeds 
and grasses. They use these substances, probably, for 
medicinal purposes, as dogs eat grass and cats eat 
catnip. 

Pigeons drink a great deal of water, and it is 
important that it should be kept clean. Open vessels 
should never be used in a loft, unless a stream of pure 
water can be kept running through 
them. A wire cage like the cut, open 
at the bottom and closed on top, set 
over a basin, makes a handy arrange- 
ment. Stone or earthen self-feeding fountains, such 
as are used for fowls, are good. 

A daily bath in summer, and twice a week in 
winter, is essential to the comfort and health of the 
flock. Wide, shallow milk pans answer very well for 
bath tubs. These may be set out in the fly filled with 
water, and allowed to remain an hour or two and then 
emptied. 

An open feed-trough is quite as objectionable as 
open water vessels. The feed in them becomes 
foul and much of it is wasted. The 
self-feeding hopper shown in the 
accompanying illustration is one of 
the best that can be found. These 
hoppers can be made of starch or soap boxes, by any 
one handy with tools. The lid should be broad enough 
to cover completely the feed trough at the sides. 




PIGEONS FOR MARKET. I33 

and these troughs should be just broad enough to 
allow the birds to feed without permitting them to 
get in with their feet. 

Pigeon eggs hatch in sixteen or eighteen days. 
After the first few days the young ones grow with 
wonderful rapidity, if the parents are supplied with 
proper food and do their duty. In from four to six 
weeks the squabs are old enough to kill. Some 
develop so much more rapidly than others that no 
fixed date can be given at which it may be said they 
are of the right age to be in the best condition to 
sell. When this period is reached the neck feathers 
have passed the pin-feather stage, and the tail is 
usually about three inches long, but the bird is still 
unable to fly. When they begin to fly they are too 
" hard. " as dealers say, and when the skin of the crop 
and of the abdominal pouch is thin and transparent 
and these parts are full and the breast undeveloped, 
the dealers complain that they are too "soft." It 
often happens that one of a pair — it is usually the 
male — is ready for market a week before its mate. 
By marketing the larger and leaving the smaller one 
to be nursed by the parents, it will be ready to go 
with the next lot. 

Squabs are killed and dressed just like chickens, 
by bleeding in the mouth and picking dry. They are 
in the best condition for killing in the morning before 
the old ones give them their breakfast. 

After killing and dressing they may be tied in 
pairs, or in half dozens, and put into cold water, or 
packed on ice until sent to market. 

Where breeders are a long distance from market 



134 



BIGGUS POUIvTRY BOOK. 



it is better to send squabs in crates alive. In this case 
they must be old enough to fly, or, at least, old 
enough to feed themselves. 

There should be a weekly slaughter on a fixed 
date in the week. On these occasions every nest 
should be examined so that no bird that is old enough 
may be overlooked or get away. 

A well-managed flock will raise, on an average, 
five pairs of squabs annually for every pair of birds it 
contains. It is not safe to bae,e calculations for profit on 
a greater increase than this, although it is quite possible. 

Prices vary with the season, rising in the winter 
and spring and falling in summer. Near the large 
eastern markets it is safe to reckon on an average of 
forty cents a pair. This will make the returns from 
one pair of breeders $2.40 a year. During this time 
the parents and their progeny will consume food 
worth at least $1.50. This will leave a balance to their 
credit of ninety cents. The dioppings of a pair of 
pigeons in confinement are worth ten cents a year, 
which will make the profit, not counting labor, an 
even dollar. It is possible to do better than this and 
possible also to do worse. 



/ 



» IP 




Chapter XVI. 
FATTENING AND MARKETING CHICKENS. 

Well-fattened and cleanly dressed poultry is half sold. 
The market is never overstocked with strictly fresh eggs. 

—Tim. 

It is a waste of time and food to sell any but well- 
fed, well-conditioned and well-dressed poultry. Sound 
yellow corn is the best grain for fattening purposes. 
The more of it fowls can be induced to eat and digest, 
the quicker they will fatten. Whatever else is fur- 
nished should be given as a condiment to aid in the 
assimilation of the corn. Two of the three meals of 
fattening fowls should consist of corn meal mixed 
with milk and seasoned with salt. For the noon meal 
whole corn and wheat with a little vegetable food of 
some kind and a little meat may be given for a change. 
Clean water, plenty of sharp, gritty gravel and a box 
of granulated charcoal should be kept before them at 
all times. Food should not be permitted to lie before 
them bu^: they should have at each meal all they will 
eat up clean, and every bird should have a chance and 
time to get his portion. Fowls will continue to im- 
prove just as long as they continue to eat with a relish. 
How long this will be depends much upon the skill of 
the feeder. From ten to fourteen days is the time 
usually allowed for fattening chickens. It is difficult 
to carry on the process longer in coops, but in small 
yards and under skilful hands it may be prolonged for a 



I38 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

month. As a rule the operation can be most quickly 
and economically done in a properly made coop. 
Figure 1 illustrates one that is admirably adapted to 
A^prrpp^^^fo^ the purpose. A portion of the 
^dm ri L j^dllllffi^ front wall is cut away to show 
^^^™^ „„„___ ? _jjB j^- s interior. It is eight feet long, 

Fig. 1. three feet wide and four feet 

high in front, two-and-a-half feet high in the rear, 
and set two feet from the ground. 

A pole is attached to a movable partition, which 
slides on slats. When it is desired to catch the fowls, 
by laying hold of the pole where it protrudes through 
the end the fowls are all drawn up close to the door. 
The bottom is made of slats. The feeding trough is 
six inches wide and four inches deep and has a lid. 

When large numbers are to be prepared at one 
time a fattening coop is not available. But wherever 
it may be done the birds should be kept in a quiet 
and restful state. This will preclude the putting 
together those of different flocks and ages that are 
likely to fight and keep up a turmoil in the pen. 

Ducks and ducklings do best in small pens or 
yards. The same may be said of goslings. Old geese 
will fatten while running at large. Water fowl need 
more vegetable food while fattening than do chickens. 
No poultry, however, should be fed green vegetables 
or grass for two days before being killed. > Onions, 
turnips, cabbage, fish or other food having a pungent 
odor should not be fed during the fattening period. 

Turkeys do not thrive well in confinement and 
can best be fitted for market while on the range, but 
special care should be taken for a month or six weeks 



FATTENING AND MARKETING. I39 

to let them have all the fattening food they can be 
tempted to eat. 

The caponizing or emasculation of male chickens 
may be mentioned here, as it pertains to their better 
preparation for market. The manner of performing 
the operation can best be learned under a skilled 
operator, but those who sell the necessary instruments 
send with them instructions from which, with prac- 
tice, any one may become proficient in the art. The 
effect on chickens is the same as on animals, it makes 
the subject quieter in disposition and greatly improves 
the quality of the flesh. Capons, therefore, are easier 
to manage, easier to fatten and bring a better price 
than any other poultry except early broilers. 

It is generally the later hatched cockerels that are 
caponized. The earlier ones pay best to sell as 
broilers or roasters. All hatched before the 1st of 
April can be marketed before the July drop in price 
occurs, or kept over for the early fall trade. The 
cockerels of the April, May and June broods are ready 
for the operation in from three to four months from 
hatching and will have ten months in which to grow 
for the capon market, which includes the period 
between the middle of January to the middle of April. 

The breeds best adapted for capons are the 
medium and large ones or their crosses. 

In preparing and dressing poultry for market the 
intelligent poultry keeper will seek to learn what the 
general market requires and what special requirement 
is made by the market to which he is about to ship. 
Dry-picked poultry sells best in all markets. By this 
manner of dressing the skin retains its color and the 



140 BIGGI.K POULTRY BOOK. 

flesh its natural firmness. When scalded the skin 
turns blue, tears easily and peels off, giving the carcass 
an aged and uninviting appearance. It pays to dry- 
pick and when the art is learned it is a speedier 
method than scalding. 

To dry-pick with ease and dispatch the bird 
should be hung up by the legs at a convenient height, 
and bled by making a cut across the back of the 
mouth, finishing by a deft thrust of the point of the 
knife into the spinal cord at the base of the brain. 
This paralyzes the bird, relaxes the muscles and 
loosens the feathers. This last thrust is acquired by 
practice and makes dry-picking easy and rapid. 

Poultry for the New York and Philadelphia mar- 
kets should be plucked clean. 
Capons should have the feathers 
of the head and neck, tips of 
wirgs and the tail left on. The 
first joint of the wings of ducks 
and turkeys is usually removed 
along with the feathers and 
retained by the farmer's wife 
or sold for dusters. 

Boston must have its poultry 

capons' for philada. ' ' drawn " ; that is, the entrails 

market. removed. Broilers need not be 

drawn. Ducks should have the tips of wings left on 

and the wings tied to the body, to retain the shape of 

the carcass. 

Baltimore also requires poultry to be drawn. 
Chicago wants its poultry dry-picked, with heads 
off and the skin drawn over the neck and tied, and 
the entrails removed. 




FATTENING AND MARKETING. 141 

In all cases when dressed poultry is sent to mar- 
ket undrawn, the crop should be entirely empty. 
This condition may be secured by not feeding them 
for twelve hours before killing. 

Some markets demand yellow-flesh fowls, others 
prefer white, but all want plump, nicely fattened 
stock. 

In packing poultry dry for shipment to market 
use clean barrels or boxes holding about two hundred 
pounds. Line the case or barrel with clean manilla 
paper, but use no packing. Place the poultry in 
breasts down and legs out straight, crowding them 
together closely so as to fill the entire space. Put 
paper over the top layer and fasten a cover of burlap 
over the barrel and slats over the case. Poultry can 
be shipped in this manner in cool weather. It must 
be thoroughly cooled before packing and all blood and 
stains wiped off. 

For warm-weather shipments poultry must be 
packed in ice. For this purpose sugar barrels are 
commonly used. Holes are first bored in the bottom 
for drainage and a layer of broken ice put in the 
bottom. A layer of poultry is put on this ice, breast 
down, heads out and feet towards center. The layer 
of poultry complete, a layer of ice is put on and then 
a layer of poultry until the top is reached, when one 
or several large lumps are piled on top and a burlap 
cover over all. 

The address of the consignee and the weight of 
the poultry should be placed conspicuously on the 
cover, along with the address of the consignor. 
When mixed lots are sent, if large enough, it is best 



142 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

to pack separately, or, if packed in one barrel, they 
should be grouped together and the weight of each 
noted on the cover. 

All shipments should be made so as to be sure to 
reach the market before the close of the week and at 
least three days before a holiday. 

For long-distance shipments poultry is usually 
cooped alive in crates or hampers made for the pur- 
pose of slats or of wire and splints. Different kinds 
of poultry and birds of different ages and sizes should 
not be crowded into one hamper or the smaller and 
weaker may be trampled to death by their stronger 
companions. To be sure of rapid transit it is safest 
to ship poultry by express, but as to this every one 
must be guided by circumstances. 

Eggs are now nearly all shipped in crates having 
what are called pasteboard "fillers." The standard 
crate holds thirty dozen and the gift form of it that is 
sold with the eggs is popular with dealers. The pro- 
ducer of eggs who can ship once or twice every week 
to a dealer or grocer having good customers, and who 
will send only clean and strictly fresh eggs, can usually 
get a few cents above the market price. The vicious 
system of collecting and marketing eggs in vogue 
in this country is responsible, to some extent, for 
the low prices that prevail at certain seasons. The 
eggs are left in the nests a few days, then kept in the 
house for a week, then traded for groceries at the 
village store. In a week or two they are sent by the 
groceryman to the city and through a dealer are dis- 
tributed to city grocers, finally reaching the con- 
sumer as " fresh country eggs." 



FATTENING AND MARKETING. I43 

A successful egg farmer who made money at the 
business always shipped his eggs in sealed crates to 
a dealer who had a gilt-edged trade and guaranteed 
every egg to be fresh and sound. The dealer sold 
them under this guarantee to customers who were 
willing to pay an advanced price for such stock. The 
result was satisfactory to all parties concerned. 



A POOR FATTENING PROCESS. 



If you have bought tarred felt to line the poultry house with, 
to keep the flock warm, don't do it. Put it on the outside. 
Brighten up the inside with lime wash. 

Keep wood ashes out of the hen house. A small portion 
may be mixed with the loam in the dust-box for medicinal 
purposes. Wood ashes bleach the shanks of fowls and when 
mixed with the droppings cause the ammonia to escape. 

Notice with what pleasure a hen scratches among the forest 
leaves in summer. This is a hint to save the leaves to scatter 
on the floor of the poultry house in winter. 

Corn meal fresh from the mill will quickly heat and sooilin 
warm weather if not looked after. Mix with bran and stir it up 
occasionally. If it becomes mouldy and caked throw it on the 
manure pile ; do not feed to fowls. 

To preserve eggs for family use, pack strictly fresh ones in 
fine salt, small end down, so they do not touch each other. When 
the box is full screw lid on and turn twice a week. 

A person who formerly kept a large flock of laying hens and 
had an old-fashioned stationary boiler, put in whatever vegeta- 
bles and meat he had to cook about the middle of the afternoon, 
filled the boiler nearly full of water and started the fire. By 
supper time the vegetables and meat were tender, the fire nearly 
out, but the water still boiling hot. Just at this time he would 
stir in the corn meal and bran until the mush was as thick as 
could be conveniently stirred, covered it up tightly and in the 
morning there was the most delicious breakfast for a flock of 
hens that could be made. 



144 



BIGGI^K POUI/fRY BOOK. 



Put a dash of red paint on the left wing of your turkeys, let 
your neighbors paint theirs on the right wing or on the shoulder. 
Have an agreement in the matter and then there will be greater 
harmony in the fall. 

Feather-duster makers buy turkey feathers. The long tail 
feathers (i)and the wing feathers (2) are the most valuable. The 
pointers (3) growing on the first join, they do not 
want. Thrifty housewives cut off and dry the first 
joint for kitchen use. The long feathers at the root 
of the tail are also utilized in making dusters. All 
feathers for sale should be dry-picked and free from 
soil and blood. To pack these large feathers, put 
sacking in a box the size of the proposed bundle, lay feathers in 
fiat and straight, press down, draw the sacking over and sew 
up. Do not put different kinds together. The price of turkey 
and chicken body feathers is generally low, but by picking over 
a barrel or box they may be saved without much extra labor. 
The importance of saving duck and geese feathers need hardly 
be mentioned. 

A most excellent remedy for many sick fowls is composed ol 
a sharp hatchet and a good spade. 

A hen hatching ducks is simply brooding over trouble fot 
herself 





Chapter XVII. 
DISEASES AND ENEMTEJS. 

Dampness , filth and roup occupy the same quarters and are 
fast friends. 

A bucket of whitewash is better than a chestful of medicine. 

—Tim's Wife. 

Many of the ills that poultry flesh is heir to are 
directly traceable to bad breeding and treatment. 
In-and-in-breeding is practiced and the law of the 
survival of the fittest is disregarded until the stock 
becomes weak and a prey to disease. 

Yards and runs occupied for any considerable 
time become covered with excreta and a breeding 
ground for all manner of disease germs. 

Dampness from leaky roofs or from wet earth 
floors, and draughts from side cracks, or from over- 
head ventilation slay their thousands yearly. 

A one-sided diet of grain, especially corn, moldy 
grain or meal, decayed meat or vegetables, filthy 
water, or the lack of gritty material are fruitful 
sources of sickness. 

In the treatment of sick birds much depends on 
the nursing and care. It is useless to give medicine 
unless some honest attempt be made to remove the 
causes that produce the disturbance. Unless removed 
the cause will continue to operate and the treatment 
must be repeated. 

It is an excellent plan to have a coop in some 
secluded place to be used exclusively as a hospital. If 



I48 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

cases cannot be promptly treated it is better to use 
the hatchet at once and bury deeply, or burn the 
carcasses. This is the proper plan in every case 
where birds become very ill before they are discovered. 

Sick birds should in no case be allowed to run 
with the flock and to eat and drink with them. 

In giving the following remedies I make no 
pretence to a scientific handling of the subject. 
Homeopathic remedies are given along with the 
common drugs. Readers can " pay their money and 
take their choice." 

When the former are used they should be pur- 
chased of a homeopathic physician or homeopathic 
pharmacy. In administering them to fowls able to 
eat and drink, fifteen or twenty pellets, or five to ten 
drops of liquid, may be put in a pint of drinking 
water, or the water may be used to moisten their soft 
food. If administered to the sick bird directly, a few 
pellets, four or five, or a tablespoonful of the medi- 
cated water may be put down the patient's throat four 
or five times a day. 

Fevers, from colds, fighting of cocks, etc. Symptoms : 
unusual heat of body, red face, watery eyes and watery discharge 
from nostrils. 

Give dessertspoonful citrate of magnesia and, as a drink, 
ten drops of nitre in half a pint of water. 

Homeopathic remedy— Aconite, 3, in drinking water. 

Apoplexy and Vertigo, from overfeeding or fright. 
Symptoms : unsteady motion of the head, running around, loss 
of control of limbs. Give a purgative and bleed from the large 
veins under wing. Homeopathic — Belladonna, 3. Give a light, 
non-stimulating diet and keep in a quiet place. 

Paralysis, from highly seasoned food and over stimulating 
diet Symptoms : inability to use the limbs, birds lie helpless 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 149 

on their side. Allopathic treatment — The same as for apoplexy. 
Homeopathic — Nux vomica, 3. 

L,eg Weakness occurs in fast-growing young birds, mostly 
among cockerels. A fowl having this weakness will show it by 
squatting on the ground frequently and by a tottering walk. 
When not hereditary it usually arises from a diet that contains 
too much fat and too little flesh and bone-making material, 
such as bread, rice, corn and potatoes. To this should be added 
cut green bone, oats, shorts, bran and clover, green or dry. 
Give a tonic pill three times a day made of sulphate of iron, 
1 grain ; strychnine, 1 grain ; phosphate of lime, 16 grains ; 
sulphate of quinine, % grain. Make into thirty pills. Homeo- 
pathic — Calcarea silicata, 6. If occurring in young birds after 
exposure to dampness or a sudden change to cold weather, give 
dulcamara, 15. 

Canker of the Mouth and Head. The sores character- 
istic of this disease are covered with a yellow, cheesy matter 
which, when it is removed, reveals the raw flesh. Canker will 
rapidly spread through a flock, as the exudation from the 
sores is a virulent poison, and well birds are contaminated 
through the soft feed and drinking water. Sick birds should be 
separated from the flock and all water and feed vessels disin- 
fected by scalding or coating with lime wash. Apply to sores 
with a small pippet syringe or dropper the peroxide of hydro- 
gen. When the entire surface is more or less affected, use a 
sprayer. Where there is much of the cheesy matter formed, 
first remove it with a large quill before using the peroxide. A 
simple remedy is an application to the raw flesh of powdered 
alum, scorched until slightly brown. Homeopathic — Mercurius, 
vivus or nitric acid internally, with the use of sulphurous acid 
spray. 

Scaly Eeg, caused by a microscopic insect burrowing beneath 
the natural scales of the shank. At first the shanks appear dry, 
and a fine scale like dandruff forms. Soon the natural scale 
disappears and gives place to a hard, white scurf. The disease 
passes from one fowl to another through the medium of nests 
and perches, and the mother-hen infecting her brood. To pre- 
vent its spread, coat perches with kerosene and burn old nesting 
material and never use sitting hens affected by the disease. To 
cure, mix y 2 ounce flowers of sulphur, Vx ounce carbolic acid 



I50 BIGGI.E POULTRY BOOK. 

crystals and stir these into 1 pound of melted lard. Apply with an 
old tooth brush, rubbing in well. Make applications at inter- 
vals of a week. 

Worms in the intestines of fowls indicate disturbed diges- 
tion. I,oss of appetite and lack of thrift are signs of their 
presence. Give santonin in 2-grain doses six hours apart. A few 
hours after the second dose give a dessertspoonful of castor oil. 
Or, put 15 drops of spirits of turpentine in a pint of water and 
moisten the feed with it. Homeopathic— Cina, 3. 

Bumble-foot, caused by a bruise in flying down from 
perches or in some similar manner. A small corn appears on 
the bottom of the foot, which swells and ulcerates and fills with 
hard, cheesy pus. With a sharp knife make a cross cut and 
carefully remove all the pus. Wash the cavity with warm water, 
dip the foot in a solution of one-fourth ounce sulphate of copper 
to a quart of water and bind up with a rag and place the bird 
on a bed of dry straw. Before putting on the bandage anoint 
the wound with the ointment recommended for scaly leg or 
coat it with iodine. 

' Gapes, caused by the gape-worm, a parasite that attaches 
itself to the windpipe, filling it up and causing the bird 
to gasp for breath. The cut shows the natural size 
of the parasite as it appears attached to the windpipe, f 
The worm is about three-fourths of an inch long, smooth 
and red in color. It appears to be forked at one end, but 
in reality each parasite is two worms, a male and 
female, firmly joined together ; the male is shown at D, 
and the female, which is the larger of the two, is seen at 
K. B is a section of the windpipe. This parasite breeds 
in the common earth worm. Chicks over three months old are 
seldom affected. If kept off of the ground for two months after 
hatching, or on perfectly dry soil, or on land where affected 
chicks have never run, chicks will seldom suffer from the 
gapes. Old runs and infested soil should have frequent 
dressings of lime. 

In severe cases the worms should be removed. To 
do this put a few drops of kerosene in a teaspoonful of 
sweet oil. Strip a soft wing feather of its web to 
within an inch of the tip as shown in the illustration, 
dip in the oil, insert feather in windpipe, twirl and 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 151 

withdraw. Very likely some of the parasites and mucus will 
come with it. The rest will be loosened or killed, and event- 
ually thrown out. It may be necessary to repeat the operation. 

To kill the worm in its lodgment, gum camphor in the 
drinking water or pellets of it as large as a pea forced down the 
throat is recommended. Turpentine in the soft feed, as advised 
in the treatment for worms in the intestines, is said to be effect- 
ive. Pinching the windpipe with the thumb and finger will 
sometimes loosen the parasite. 

When broods are quartered on soil known to be infested, 
air-slaked lime should be dusted on the floor of the coop, and 
every other night, for two or three weeks, a little of the same 
should be dusted in the coop over the hen and her brood. To 
apply, use a dusting bellows and only a little each time. 

Cholera is due to a specific germ, or virus, and must not 
be confounded with common diarrhoea. In genuine cholera 
digestion is arrested, the crop remains full, there is fever and 
great thirst. The bird drinks, but refuses food and appears to 
be in distress. There is a thickening of the blood, which is 
made evident in the purple color of the comb. The discharges 
from the kidneys, called the urates, which in health are white, 
become yellowish, deep yellow, or, in the final stages, a greenish- 
yellow. The diarrhoea grows more severe as the disease pro- 
gresses. A fowl generally succumbs in two days. The virus of 
cholera is not diffusible in the air, but remains in the soil, 
which becomes infected from the discharges, and in the body and 
blood of the victims. It may be carried from place to place on 
the feet of other fowls or animals. Soil may be disinfected by 
saturating it with a weak solution of sulphuric acid in water. 
Remove at once all well birds to new and clean quarters and 
wring the necks of all sick birds and burn their carcasses and 
disinfect their quarters. 

For cases not too far gone to cure give sugar of lead, 
pulverized opium, gum camphor, of each, 60 grains, powdered 
capsicum (or fluid extract of capsicum is better, 10 drops), 
grains, 10. Dissolve the camphor in just enough alcohol that 
will do so without making it a fluid, then rub up the other ingre- 
dients in the same bolus, mix with soft corn meal dough, 
enough to make it into a mass, then roll it and divide the whole 
into one hundred and twenty pills. Dose, one to three pills a 



152 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

day for grown chicks or turkey, less to the smaller fry. The 
birds that are well enough to eat should have sufficient powdered 
charcoal in their soft feed every other day to color it slightly, 
and for every twenty fowls five drops of carbolic acid in the hot 
water with which the feed is moistened. 

Homeopathic- Arsenicum, 6, or arsenicum iodatum. As a 
preventive, use a few drops of camphor in the drinking water. 

Roup. The first symptoms are those of a cold in the head. 
Later on the watery discharge from the nostrils and eyes 
thickens and fills the nasal cavities and throat, the head swells 
and the eyes close ap and bulge out. The odor from affected 
fowls is very offensive. It is contagious by diffusion in the air 
and by contact with the exudations from sick fowls. To disinfect 
houses and coops burn sulphur and carbolic acid in them after 
turning the fowls out and keep closed for an hour or two. Pour 
a gill of turpentine and a gill of carbolic acid over a peck oi 
lime and let it become slaked, then scatter freely over the 
interior of houses and coops and about the yards. 

For the first stages spray the affected flock while on the 
roost or in the coop with a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of 
carbolic acid and a piece of fine salt as big as a walnut in a 
pint of water. Repeat two or three times a week. Or, if a dry 
powder is preferred, mix equal parts of sulphur, alum and 
magnesia and dust this in their nostrils, eyes and throat with a 
small powder gun. The nasal cavities should be kept open by 
injecting with a glass syringe or sewing machine oil-can a drop 
or two of crude petroleum. A little should be introduced also 
through the slit in the roof of the mouth. Give sick birds a 
dessertspoonful of castor oil two nights in succession, and feed 
soft food of bran and corn meal seasoned with red pepper and 
powdered charcoal. A physician advises the following treat- 
ment : hydrastin, 10 grains ; sulph. quinine, 10 grains ; capsi- 
cum, 20 grains. Mixed in a mass with balsam copaiba and 
made into twenty pills ; give one pill morning and night ; keep 
the bird warm and inject a saturated solution of chlorate potash 
in nostrils and about 20 drops down the throat. 

Homeopathic — Aconite, 3, in first stages ; mercurius vivus, 
6, when the discharge becomes thick ; and spongia, 15, when 
there is a rattling and croupy condition in the throat. 

Pip, so-called, is not a disease but only a symptom. The 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 153 

drying and hardening of the end of the tongue in what is 
called " pip" is due to breathing through the mouth, which the 
bird is compelled to do because of the stoppage of the nostrils. 
By freeing the natural air passages the tongue will resume its 
normal condition. 

Diphtheria is a contagious disease. The first symptoms 
are those of a common cold and catarrh. The head becomes red 
and there are signs of fever, then the throat fills up with thick, 
white mucus and white ulcers appear. The bird looks anxious 
and stretches its neck and gasps. When it attacks young chicks 
it is frequently mistaken for gapes. When diphtheria prevails, 
impregnate the drinking water with camphor, a teaspoonful 
of the spirits to a gallon of water, and fumigate the house as 
recommended for roup. 

Spray the throat with peroxide of hydrogen or with this 
formula : 1 ounce glycerine, 5 drops nitric acid, 1 gill water. 
To treat several birds at once with medicated vapor, take 
a long box with the lid off, make a partition across and 
near to one end and cover the bottom with coal ashes. Mix a 
tablespoonful each of pine tar, turpentine and sulphur, to which 
add a few drops, or a few crystals, of carbolic acid and a pinch 
of gum camphor. Heat a brick very hot, put the fowls in the 
large part and the brick in the other, drop a spoonful of the 
mixture on the brick and cover lightly to keep the fumes in 
among the patients. Watch carefully, as one or two minutes 
may be all they can endure. Repeat in six hours if required. 

Homeopathic treatment — Use sulphurous acid spray, and 
give internally mercurius iodatum, 1, every two hours. 

Crop-Bound. The crop becomes much distended and hard 
from obstruction of the passage from the crop to the gizzard by 
something swallowed ; generally, it is long, dried grass, a bit 
of rag or rope. Relief may sometimes be afforded by giving a 
tablespoonful of sweet oil and then gently kneading the crop 
with the hand. Give no food, except a little milk, until the 
crop is emptied. Wet a tablespoonful or more of pulverized 
charcoal with the milk and force it down the throat. Should 
the crop not empty itself naturally pluck a few feathers from the 
upper right side of it and with a sharp knife make a cut about 
an inch long in the outer skin. Draw this skin a little to one 
side and cut open the crop. Remove its contents, being careful 



154 BIGGIvE POUI/TRY BOOK. 

not to miss the obstruction. Have a needle threaded with white 
silk ready, and take a stitch or two in the crop skin first, then 
sew up the outer skin separately. Put the patient in a comfort- 
able coop, and feed sparingly for a week on bran and meal in a 
moist state, and give but little water. 

Soft or Swellkd-Crop arises from lack of grit, or from 
eating soggy and unwholesome food. The distended crop con- 
tains water and gas, the bird is feverish and drinks a great deal. 
By holding it up with its head down the crop will usually empty 
itself. When this is done give teaspoon doses of charcoal 
slightly moistened twice at intervals of six hours. Restrict the 
supply of water and feed chopped onions and soft feed in modera- 
tion. Homeopathic — Nux vomica, 3. 

Kgg-Bound, Diseases of the Oviduct. Overfat hens are 
often troubled in this way. Forcing hens for egg production 
will sometimes break down the laying machinery. Give green 
food, oats, little corn, and no stimulating condiments. Let the 
diet be plain and cooling in its nature. To relieve hens of eggs 
broken in the oviiuct, anoint the forefinger with sweet oil and 
deftly insert and draw out the broken parts. When the hen is 
very fat and the egg is so large it cannot be expelled, the only 
way to save the hen is to break the egg and remove it as above 
directed. Homeopathic— Pulsatilla, 3, one day, and calcarea 
carbonate, 15, the next. 

White-Comb or Scurvy, caused by crowded and filthy 
quarters and lack of green food. The comb is covered with a 
white scurf. This condition sometimes extends over the head 
and down the neck, causing the feathers to fall off. 

Change the quarters and diet, give a dose of castor oil and 
follow this with a half a teaspoonful of sulphur in the soft food 
daily. 

Homeopathic — Sulphur for one day, followed by graphites, 6. 

Rheumatism and Cramp caused by cold and dampness. 
Chicks reared on bottom-heat brooders are particularly subject 
to these troubles. Damp earth floors and cement floors in poul- 
try houses produce it in older birds. 

Give dry and comfortable quarters, feed little meat, plenty 
of green food, and soft feed seasoned with red pepper. 

Homeopathic — Rhus tox, 3, followed by bryonia, 3. 

Diarrhoea of chicks with clogging of the vent. Homeo- 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 155 

pathic — Padophyllum, a few drops in the drinking water. 
Also remove the hardened excretion and anoint the parts. 
Chamomilla is also useful in this complaint. 

Dysentery. The symptoms are frequent straining and the 
passage of urates streaked with blood. Homeopathic — Mercurius 
corrosivus is indicated. 

Loss of Sight and Wasting Away. Homeopathic — Phos- 
phorous, 6. 

Frosted Comb and Wattles. As soon as discovered 
bathe with compound tincture of benzoin. 

For L,ice on perches, walls and coops, use kerosene or lime 
wash. To make the lime-wash more effective, pour a little crude 
carbolic acid on the lime before slaking or mix with plenty of 
salt. 

For use in nests, pour crude carbolic acid on lime and allow 
it to air-slake. Put one or two handfuls of the carbolized lime 
dust in the nest box. 

Pyrethrum powder, sold as insect powder, is the dry leaves 
and blossoms of Pyrethrum roseum ground to a fine dust. This 
kills by contact and is effective for dusting in nests, and through 
the feathers of birds. It is not poisonous to animal life. Its 
judicious use in the plumage and nests of sitting hens will in- 
sure immunity from lice for the hen and her young brood. 

Chicks and poults are often killed by large lice that congre- 
gate about the head, throat, vent and wings. To destroy them, 
soak fish berries (coccolus indicus) in alcohol, take the birds 
from under the mothers at night and slightly moisten the down 
of the infested parts with the poison. Kerosen^ oil, clear, or 
mixed with sweet oil or lard may be used in the same way if care 
be taken to use only a little. 

Rats, of all vermin, are probably the most destructive 
because of their number and because they harbor in and around 
poultry buildings. Cats, terrier dogs, traps and poisons should 
all be used for their annihilation. Rats have a great liking for 
ducklings and it is necessarj' to guard them with special care. 

Opossums will lodge in rail piles during the day-time and 
raid the coops and houses at night. They kill a few at a time 
and gnaw the neck and head only. A steel trap set inside at 
the hole where the animal enters and screened by boards to 
prevent the fowls from interfering will catch the rascals. 




15° BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 

Minks and Weasels will kill a whole coopful in one night. 
They do not eat but only bleed them in the neck and suck the 
blood. These vermin live in swampy ravines, whence they come 
and lodge a few days in brush and rail piles, or along fences 
while engaged in their work of slaughter. Dogs and traps may 
be used against them. 

Foxes are also night maurauders and their sly games may 
be foiled by closed coops and houses and a watchful dog. 

A good arrangement for trapping all these varmints is 
shown by the illustration given herewith. It 
consists of a large box open at both ends 
having the central part securely enclosed by 
strong wire netting. A hen and her brood, 
or a few half-grown chicks or ducklings are put in through the 
trap-door on top. In both ends steel traps are set and concealed 
by litter or bits of thin cloth, the traps being securely chained. 
In the cut the side of coop is left off, to better show its construction. 

Cats, generally the innocent-looking pet cat, often acquire 
a taste for young chickens and will eat two or three daily with 
great regularity. The best remedy is lead from a shot-gun, or, 
if the fur is wanted, put pussy and an ounce of chloroform 
together in a close box. 

Hawks and Crows in the vicinity of woods are often 
troublesome. When they have once caught a chicken at a 
certain place they will usually come at the same hour the 
following day. Guineas are useful as alarmists. A shot gun 
well handled will bring down the enemy. Screens of brush or 
boards in the yards into which the flocks may run, 
afford protection. Set a pole with pegs in, to make 
climbing easy, in the vicinity, nail a small board on 
top, put a piece of recently killed chicken on it 
with a steel trap on the chicken and fasten trap 
with a chain. 

Crows catch only small chickens. Suspend in the 
runs small panes of glass, or pieces of mirror, or bright 
tin by cords from leaning poles or stakes. These swing- 
ing in the wind and glistening in the light are feared by the 
suspicious thieves. An upright pole may be set in the ground 
with cross arms and wind-wheel on top, as shown in the illus- 
tration. 



i 



i 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 157 

POT-PIE. 

As an evening feed in cold weather nothing is better than 
whole corn slightly warmed. 

Wading in slush is not the kind of exercise that keeps hens 
healthy and makes them lay in winter. 

The public know where Peter Tumbledown's chickens roost 
by the appearance of his wagon when he drives into town. 

An M. D. says that thirty-grain doses of salicylicate of soda 
will cure fowls of rheumatism. 

A large proportion of the substance of an egg is water. Eggs 
cannot be made out of dry grain and dried grass. Hens that 
lay in winter have a liberal supply of water from some source. 

Sods from a gravelly loam furnish grit, insects, seeds and 
dried grass. Those who have not tried sods for winter use do 
not know how valuable they are. Store a big pile in one corner 
of the hennery. 

Moulting fowls require nitrogenous food. Milk, wheat 
bran and linseed meal, animal meal, cut green bones and the 
like will furnish it. 

The place for unoccupied coops is in a shed or temporary 
shelter. Clean out and whitewash before putting them away 
for the season. 

Dry feathers in the shade ; the sun draws the oil from the 
stems. 

Rotten eggs as nest eggs are an abomination ; medicated 
eggs for keeping away lice are humbugs. 

If you have a hen noted for her laying qualities save her 
eggs and hatch them and raise a few cockerels for next year. 
This is the way to increase the egg production of your whole 
flock. Stick a big pin in this item. 

A roof that is to be covered with felt of any kind should not be 
made very steep. If the house is, say, ten feet wide, the roof ought 
not to have more than twelve or eighteen inches pitch. If twa 
or three feet pitch is given it the wind will get undr the felt and 
tear it off. We've had experience in the matter and speak " by 
the book." 

To catch a chicken or turkey quick and easy, take a cord 
and make a slip-noose on one end about twenty inches in diam 
eter. Lay this on the ground and stand off some distance with 
the other end in your hand. Throw some corn about the noose 




I58 BIGGLS POULTRY BOOK. 

and when the right fowl gets his feet within the circle of the 
cord, pull quick and you have him. 

Clover hay is excellent for laying hens. It is rich in the 
chemical qualities needed in producing eggs. It is also much 
cheaper than to feed them altogether on grain. Give them grain 
at night, but in the morning take a pail two-thirds full of fine 
cut clover and cover with boiling water, cover closely and let it 
steam until the clover is swelled, then add enough meal, ground 
oats or bran to make a crumbly mass. 

Two handy coops are shown in the illustrations. Figure 1 has 
ends made of canvas or bagging, and Figure 2 
is provided with a sliding false 
side, which may be drawn to the x 

Fig. 1. front by means of the pole, thus Fig. 2. 

bringing the chickens within reach. 

Here are some of the many causes why chicks die in the 
shell : eggs from immature pullets ; cock too fat ; hens too fat ; 
hens beginning to moult ; shells of eggs too thick ; cock inactive ; 
feeding highly-seasoned food ; lack of exercise of hens ; exposing 
the eggs just when the chicks are coming out ; lack of bulky 
food for hen ; natural weakness of parents, in-breeding ; lack 
of vigor in male ; inherent lack of vitality in chicks ; too close 
and persistent sitting by the hen, thus overheating the eggs ; 
hens once affected with the roup ; cockerel not matured. 

A good condition powder for laying hens or fattening stock : 
Ground bone, one pound (phosphoric r ":id and lime) ; ground 
meat or blood, three pounds (nitrogenous, forming albumen) ; 
linseed meal, one-half pound (nitrogenous, carbonaceous and 
laxative, used for regulating the bowels) ; charcoal, one pound 
(used for promoting digestion and assisting to correct acidity) ; 
salt, half pound (very necessary, and often neglected) ; ground 
ginger, two ounces ; red pepper, one tablespoonful ; gentian, 
one ounce (stimulant and corrective) ; citrate of iron and 
ammonia, one ounce (an invigorator of the system). A small 
handful daily to each ten fowls in soft feed. 

A good condition powder for sick fowls : gentian, one pound ; 
red pepper, half ounce ; salt, one ounce ; citrate of iron and 
ammonia, one ounce; Peruvian bark, one ounce; black anti- 
mony, one ounce ; charcoal, half a pound. Give a tablespoonful 
to two hens in the soft feed once a day. 



INDEX. 



A 

Age, breeder 21 

egg 30 

laying hens 64 

Apoplexy 148 

B 

Breeders, age for 21 

confining 24 

deformity in 24 

mating 21, 24 

turkey 97-98 

Breeding pens 24 

Breeds 81-92 

broiler 51 

village hennery 75-/7 

Broilers 49 

breeds for 51 

feeding 53 

market for 49 

weight of 49 

Brooder capacity 45 

chicks 43 

house 52 

temperature 45 

Brooders, style of 45 

Broody hens, instinct 27 

managing 27-28 

selecting 27 

Bumble-foot 150 

C 

Canker 149 

Capons 139 

Cats 156 

Chick coops t>j, 40 

runs 40 



Chicken-catcher 157 

Chickens, fattening 137 

roasting 49 

Chicks 35-36 

brooder 43 

dead in shell 158 

feeding 38-40 

helping out of shell 35 

removing 36 

water vessels for 40 

Cholera 151 

Cockerels, caponizing 139 

sale of 60 

Comb, frosted 155 

Condition powder 158 

Coop, fattening 138 

Coops, chick 37, 40 

Cramp 154 

Crop-bound 153 

soft or swelled 154 

Crows 156 

D 

Deformities in cock 24 

Diarrhoea 154 

Diphtheria 153 

Diseases 147-155 

apoplexy 148 

bumble-foot 150 

canker H9 

cholera 15 1 

cramps 154 

crop-bound 153 

diarrhoea 154 

diphtheria 153 

dysentery ISS 

egg-bound 154 

fevers 148 



l6o 



BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK. 



frosted comb.., 155 

frosted wattles 155 

gapes 150 

leg weakness 149 

loss of sight 155 

oviduct 154 

paralysis 148 

pip 152 

preventing 147 

rheumatism 154 

roup 152 

scaly legs 149 

scurvy 154 

soft crop 154 

swelled crop 154 

vertigo 148 

wasting away 155 

white comb 154 

worms 150 

Dressing for market. . .139-141 
squab pigeons 133 

Ducklings 113-138 

care of 114 

fattening 138 

food for 114-115 

shelter for 115 

yarding 115 

Ducks 107-116 

feeding no 

for eggs 109 

hatching eggs 113 

houses for 110-113 

mating 113 

sex of 116 

varieties of 107-109 

Dysentery 155 

E 

Egg-bound 154 

farm labor 64 

incubation of 15 

market ... 59 

pickle 18 

shaking an 24 

shell 14, 18 

studying incubation of.. 15 

tester, how made 16 

testing 16-18 

when fertilized 14, 24 



white of an 14 

yolk of an 14 

Eggs, airing 32 

cold storage 18 

construction ot 13 

contents of 14, 22 

dirty 18 

feeding for 22 

fertile 17-18 

how produced 22 

infertile 17, 31-32 

stale 17 

turning 32 

Eggs for hatching. .21, 24, 30 

age of 30 

duck 113 

evaporation of 31 

fouled 29 

pullet 50 

selecting 29 

shipping 142-143 

Enemies 155-156 

cats 156 

crows 156 

foxes 156 

hawks 156 

lice 155 

minks 156 

opossums 155 

rats .155 

weasels 156 

F 

Farmer's flock 67 

culling 68 

feeding 71 

housing 69-71 

improving 69 

size of 68 

Fattening chickens 137 

coop 138 

ducklings 138 

geese 138 

turkeys 138 

Feathers, geese 123 

turkey 144 

Fertility 24 

Fevers 148 



i6i 



Foods, balanced ration.... 64 

broiler 53 

chick 38-40 

duck no 

duckling 114-115 

egg-making 22, 23, 63, 78 

farmer's flock 71 

fertility 62-63 

free range 23 

gosling 122-123 

pigeon 131 

setting hen 29 

turkey 97, 100 

Foxes 156 

Frosted comb 155 

wattles ,.155 

G 

Gapes 150 

Geese 1 19-124, 138 

broody 121 

egg-record 121 

fattening 138 

feathers of 123 

incubation of ...121, 123-124 

life of 120 

mating 120 

varieties of 1 19-120 

Germs, strong 21-22 

Goslings 121 

feeding 122-123 

marketing 122 

picking 123 

Guinea fowls 102-104 

mating 103 

nature of 102-103 

young 103 

H 

Hatching, eggs late in ...36 

temperature 31 

turkeys 100 

Hawks 156 

Hen farms 60 

houses 61, 69-71 

Hens, age of laying 64 

colonizing 60 



food for setting 29 

good laying 57-58 

hatching 35 

"laying type" of- 57 

marketing 64 

overfat 21 

setting 28-29 

two-year-old 21 

Homeopathic treatment. . .148 

Hospital 147 

House, brooder 52 

duck 110-113 

hen 61, 69-71 

pigeon 127 

village hennery 76-77 

Incubation 15, 27-28, 30-31 

buying eggs for 50 

geese eggs 121, 123-124 

temperature for 30 

time for 49 

Incubator 

location for 30 

removing chicks 43-44 

studying 15 

Incubators 29 

L 

Leg weakness 149 

Lice i5S 

M 

Mating breeders 21, 24 

ducks 113 

geese 120 

guinea fowls 103 

pigeons 129-130 

Maturity, when reached.. 22 

Minks 156 

Molting fowls 157 

N 
JN'ests, making 28 



62 



BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK. 



Opossums 155 

Overstocking 67 

Oviduct diseases 154 



Paralysis 

Pea-fowl 

Pigeons 

dressing squab 
egg incubation 

loft for 

mating 

nests for 

profit in squab 
raising squab . 

Pip 

Pullet eggs 

Pullets, buying.., 
forcing , 



148 

104 

■134 
133 
133 
■127 
■130 
128 
134 
129 

i5 2 

50 
60 



R 

Rats 155 

Rheumatism 154 

Roasting chickens 49 

Roup 152 

Runs, chick 40 



Scaly leg , 

Scurvy 

Sex of ducks 

Shelter for ducklings 

Shipping 141-142 

eggs 142-143 

Sight, loss of •- • .155 

Soft crop 154 



.149 

■154 
,116 
.115 



Swan 116 

Swelled crop 154 

T 

Thermometer 31 

placing 32 

Turkeys 95-102 

breeding 97-98 

care of young 101 

diet of young 100 

fattening 98, 138 

feathers of 

food for 

hatching 

marking 

setting 

time of laying 

varieties of 



weights of 95 



Varieties, ducks 107-109 

geese 1 19-120 

turkeys 95 

Vertigo 148 

Village hennery 75 

breeds for 75-77 

care of 76, 78 

house for 76-77 

W 

Wasting away 155 

Water vessels 40 

Wattles, frosted 155 

Weasels 156 

White comb 154 

Worms 150 



Yarding ducklings 115 



JUN 16 WW 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 840 056 1 



